The Lwów uprising (Polish: powstanie lwowskie, akcja Burza) was an armed insurrection by the Home Army (Polish: Armia Krajowa) underground forces of the Polish resistance movement in World War II against the Nazi German occupation of the city of Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine) in the latter stages of World War II. It began on July 23, 1944 as part of a secret plan to launch the countrywide all-national uprising codenamed Operation Tempest ahead of the Soviet advance on the Eastern Front. The Lwów uprising lasted until July 27 and resulted in the liberation of the city. However, shortly afterwards the Polish soldiers were arrested by the invading Soviets.[1] Some were forced to join the Red Army, others sent to the Gulag camps. The city itself was occupied by the Soviet Union.[2]

In late December 1943, the Red Army initiated yet another offensive upon the 1939 territory of Poland. Already on January 4, 1944, the first Soviet units crossed the pre-war Polish border in Volhynia. By the end of March most of Tarnopol Voivodeship lay in their hands, with the Germans preparing to retreat behind the Bug River. Under such circumstances the Home Army devised a plan of a gradual uprising that was to break out before the advancing Soviets, defeat the withdrawing German troops, and allow the underground Polish authorities to appear in newly liberated areas as their legitimate governors. The plan, code-named Operation Tempest, was put into action. By early July 1944 the local Lwów Home Army division of the Jazlowce Uhlans (Ułani Jazłowieccy) prepared specific orders for all Polish partisan units in the area.[3]

According to the order of July 5, 1944, the forces of the Home Army within the city were divided onto five districts, each with its own centre of mobilization and different tasks. On July 18, the German civilian authorities and pro-Nazi Ukrainian Auxiliary Police withdrew from the city. The following day, the forces of the Wehrmacht left Lwów, leaving only a token force. This left large parts of the town practically in Polish hands. However, at the same time, several new divisions of the Wehrmacht appeared at the city's outskirts, causing the Polish headquarters to postpone the uprising. It was not until the afternoon of July 21 that the first reconnaissance units of the Red Army arrived to the area.

Soviet 29th Tank Brigade of the 4th Tank Army under Lt. Gen. Lelushenko reached the city's limits on July 22, 1944. At that moment, the Polish Home Army decided to commence the battle against German fortified outposts throughout Lwów.[2]

The German forces relocated from the outskirts of the city's and fortified themselves in the city centre. In the early hours of the following day, what started as a series of skirmishes resulted in an outbreak of heavy city fights. The first to join the fight was the 14th Home Army Uhlan Regiment of foot, clearing the suburb of Łyczaków and pushing towards the old town along Zielona and Łyczakowska streets. In the western area, the Polish forces outnumbered the Germans and were able to capture the Main Train Station terminal. The southern area was almost abandoned by the Germans and the Polish forces were able to capture the 19th century citadel with large military supplies depots.[2] This success allowed the supply of the Polish troops with badly needed arms.

On July 23 the heaviest fighting ensued in the city centre and the northern district, where the Poles were able to capture only the Gas Works, preventing their demolition by the German troops. In the city centre, the partisans were aided by the entire Soviet 10th Tank Corps that was gradually joining the fights. The Soviets advanced in three wedges. One of them aimed at the southern area, already cleared from any German resistance by the Polish units. The two others reinforced the Polish units attacking along the Zielona and Łyczakowska streets. By the end of the day, the last column reached the Old Town Square and the Poles captured the Old Town Market.

Afterwards, the civil and military authorities were summoned for a meeting with Red Army commanders and captured by the NKVD with guarantees of safety for all attendees provided. Despite these guarantees, the Soviets arrested some 5000 Polish soldiers who were sent to "Miedniki" gulag. The remaining forces of col. Władysław Filipkowski were forcibly conscripted to the Red Army, sent to Gulag or escaped to rejoin the underground.

1.
Operation Tempest
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Operation Tempest was a series of anti-Nazi uprisings conducted during World War II by the Polish Home Army, the dominant force in the Polish resistance. Operation Tempest was aimed at seizing control of cities and areas occupied by the Germans while they were preparing their defenses against the advancing Soviet Red Army, Polish underground civil authorities aimed at taking power before the arrival of the Soviets. From its inception the Home Army had been preparing an armed rising against the Germans. The basic framework of the rising was created in September 1942. According to the plan, the Uprising was to be ordered by the Polish Commander-in-Chief in exile when the defeat of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front became apparent. The Uprising was to begin in Central Poland, in the General Gouvernement, Zagłębie, Kraków Voivodeship, reconstruction of a Polish regular army was to be based on the prewar Polish order of battle. Home Army units were to be turned into regular divisions, initially to be created were 16 infantry divisions, three cavalry brigades and one motorized brigade, to be equipped with captured weapons or with arms and supplies delivered by the Allies. The second phase was to see the re-building of an additional 15 divisions and 5 cavalry brigades which, beginning in 1943, Home Army units were grouped into larger units bearing the names and numbers of prewar Polish divisions, brigades and regiments. In February 1943, the Home Army chief, General Stefan Rowecki, the Uprising would take place in three stages. The first stage would be a rising in the east in advance of the approaching Red Army. In preparation, the Wachlarz organization was formed, the second stage would be an armed struggle in the zone between the Curzon Line and the Vistula River, and the third stage would be a national rising over the rest of Poland. The Home Armys commander on the ground, however, took a different approach, and on November 30,1943, a final version of the plan was drafted. The plan was to cooperate with the advancing Red Army on a level, while Polish civil authorities came out from underground. This plan was approved by the Delegate of the government-in-exile and by the Polish underground parliament, on January 2,1944, Red Army forces of the 2nd Belarusian Front crossed the prewar Polish border and Operation Tempest began. The Division managed to contact the commanders of the advancing Red Army, together they retook Kowel and Włodzimierz. The Division was, however, soon forced to retreat west, Polish soldiers taken prisoner by the Soviets were given the choice of joining the Red Army or being sent to Soviet forced-labor camps. The remnants of the Division crossed the Bug River, where they were attacked by Soviet partisan units, after liberating the towns of Lubartów and Kock, the Division was surrounded by the Red Army and taken prisoner. The operation, which was carried out by the 27th Home Army Infantry Division was aimed at the Wehrmacht units

2.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan

3.
Armia Krajowa
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The Home Army was the dominant Polish resistance movement in Poland occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej, over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces. Its allegiance was to the Polish Government-in-Exile, and it constituted the armed wing of what became known as the Polish Underground State, estimates of the Home Armys 1944 strength range between 200,000 and 600,000, the most commonly cited number being 400,000. This last number would make the Home Army not only the largest Polish underground resistance movement, the Home Army was disbanded on 19 January 1945, after the Soviet Red Army had largely cleared Polish territory of German forces. The Home Army sabotaged German operations such as transports headed for the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union and it also fought several full-scale battles against the Germans, particularly in 1943 and in Operation Tempest in 1944. The Home Army, in support of the Soviet military effort, tied down substantial German forces, the most widely known Home Army operation was the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. The Army also defended Polish civilians against atrocities perpetrated by German, because the Home Army was loyal to the Polish Government-in-Exile, the Soviet Union saw it as an obstacle to a Soviet takeover of Poland. Consequently, over the course of the war, conflict grew between the Home Army and Soviet forces, all the while, however, many other resistance organizations remained active in Poland. Most of them merged with the Armed Resistance or with its successor. The Polish Government in Exile envisioned the Home Army as an apolitical, Home Army plans envisioned, at wars end, the seizure of power in Poland by the Government Delegation for Poland and by the Government in Exile itself, which expected to return to Poland. In addition to the Polish government in London, an organization operated in Poland itself - a deliberative body of the resistance. The Political Consultative Committee formed in 1940 pursuant to an agreement between several political parties, the Socialist Party, Peoples Party, National Party and Labor Party. In 1943 it was renamed to Home Political Representation and in 1944 to Council of National Unity, after Germany started its invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, the Soviet Union joined the Allies and signed an Anglo-Soviet Agreement on 12 July 1941. This put the Polish Government in a position, since it had previously pursued a policy of two enemies. Though a Polish-Soviet agreement was signed in August 1941, cooperation continued to be difficult, until the major rising in 1944, the Home Army concentrated on self-defense and on attacks against German forces. The Home Army supplied valuable intelligence to the Allies, 43% of all received by the British secret services from continental Europe in between 1939 and 1945 came from Polish sources. Until 1942 most British intelligence on Germany came from Home Army reports, until the end of the war, the Home Army remained Britains main source of news from Central and Eastern Europe. Home Army intelligence provided the Allies with information on German concentration camps and on the V-1 flying bomb,242, photographs, eight key V-2 parts, and drawings of the wreckage

4.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943

5.
Operation Ostra Brama
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Operation Ostra Brama was an armed conflict during World War II between the Polish Home Army and the Nazi German occupiers of Vilnius. It began on 7 July 1944, as part of a Polish national uprising, Operation Tempest, though the Germans were defeated, the following day the Soviet Red Army entered the city and the Soviet NKVD proceeded to intern Polish soldiers and to arrest their officers. Several days later, the remains of the Polish Home Army retreated into the forests, from the Soviet point of view, the operation was a complete success, as both the Germans and the Poles loyal to the London government suffered a defeat. The main reason for the operation was for propaganda purposes - to claim rights for Wilna, Operation Ostra Brama was meant to be carried out during an expected state of confusion among German units in Wilno, who would be in fear of upcoming, overwhelming, Soviet forces. Polish command most likely did not anticipate successfully taking the city, the plan for capturing Wilno resembled plans for the Warsaw Uprising. On 12 June 1944 General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski, Commander-in-Chief of the Home Army, the Home Army districts of Wilno and Navahrudak planned to take control of the city before the Soviets could reach it. On 26 June 1944 major Teodor Cetys and lieutenant colonel Zygmunt Blumski put forward a plan to Wilk, order number 1 Ostra Brama comprised an overall outline for an assault on Wilno. The Home Army forces of combined district Wilno and Navahrudak were intended to strike from the outside under the lead of lieutenant colonel Poleszczuk, units inside the city were under command of lieutenant colonel Ludwik. According to plan, the attack was prepared from eastern and south-eastern directions. The second Red Army crosses the front as it stand in 1916, on 2 July the Polish Government in London gave the order to begin operation Burza in whole district Wilno and Navahrudak. It is believed to be a mistake, as Home Army units had been dispersed on a large terrain, faced with the Soviet Army approaching the city, Wilk made the decision to launch operations immediately on 7 July at dawn, one day before it had been originally scheduled. As a result of change, the plans did not go well. In spite of incomplete mobilization, around 4 thousand Polish partisans, the 1st Group formation Pohorecki included the 3rd, 8th and 13th Brigade, the 3rd and 5th Battalion of the 3rd and 5th Infantry Regiment, ORKO Groma and OS Wilczura. The 3rd Group formation Jaremy contained the 9th Brigade, the 1st and 6th Battalion of the 77th Infantry Regiment, OD Promienia, the line between cemetery at Rosa and Bielmont was designated as an approach line. Polish soldiers had made no reconnaissance of German defenses, but pushed forward regardless, 1st and 6th battalions reached the first line of fortifications on the boundary of the village Lipówka and crossed the Wilno-Podbrodzie rail line track. They were soon repulsed to their positions by a German counterattack. Accordingly, the 9th Brigade got pinned down at blockhouses in Hrybiszek, partisans from the 3rd and 5th Battalions captured Góry, after bitter fighting, but they could not proceed under heavy fire. 3rd and 8th Battalions had been neutralized by the train in the vicinity of Kolonia Wileńska

6.
Warsaw Uprising
–
The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. The uprising was timed to coincide with the Soviet Unions Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces. However, the Soviet advance stopped short, enabling the Germans to regroup and demolish the city while defeating the Polish resistance, the Uprising was the largest single military effort taken by any European resistance movement during World War II. The Uprising began on 1 August 1944, as part of a plan, Operation Tempest. The main Polish objectives were to drive the Germans from the city and help with the fight against Nazi Germany. Also, short-term causes included the threat of a German round-up of able-bodied Poles, initially, the Poles established control over most of central Warsaw, but the Soviets ignored Polish attempts to establish radio contact and did not advance beyond the city limits. Intense street fighting between the Germans and Poles continued, arthur Koestler called the Soviet attitude one of the major infamies of this war which will rank for the future historian on the same ethical level with Lidice. Winston Churchill pleaded with Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt to help Britains Polish allies, then, without Soviet air clearance, Churchill sent over 200 low-level supply drops by the Royal Air Force, the South African Air Force, and the Polish Air Force under British High Command. Later, after gaining Soviet air clearance, the U. S. Army Air Force sent one high-level mass airdrop as part of Operation Frantic, the Soviet Union refused to allow American bombers from Western Europe to land on Soviet airfields after dropping supplies to the Poles. Although the exact number of remains unknown, it is estimated that about 16,000 members of the Polish resistance were killed. In addition, between 150,000 and 200,000 Polish civilians died, mostly from mass executions, Jews being harboured by Poles were exposed by German house-to-house clearances and mass evictions of entire neighbourhoods. German casualties totalled over 8,000 soldiers killed and missing, during the urban combat approximately 25% of Warsaws buildings were destroyed. Following the surrender of Polish forces, German troops systematically levelled another 35% of the city block by block, by July 1944, Poland had been occupied by the forces of Nazi Germany for almost five years. The Polish Home Army, which was loyal to the Polish government-in-exile, had planned some form of insurrection against the occupiers. Germany was fighting a coalition of Allied powers, led by the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the initial plan of the Home Army was to link up with the invading forces of the Western Allies as they liberated Europe from the Nazis. However, in 1943 it became apparent that the Soviets, rather than the Western Allies, in this country, we have one point from which every evil emanates. If we didnt have Warsaw in the General Government, we wouldnt have four-fifths of the difficulties with which we must contend and it became obvious that the advancing Soviet Red Army might not come to Poland as an ally but rather only as the ally of an ally. The Soviets and the Poles distrusted each other, and Soviet partisans in Poland often clashed with Polish resistance increasingly united under the Home Armys front, afterwards, Stalin created the Rudenko Commission, whose goal was to blame the Germans for the war crime at all costs

7.
Polish language
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Polish is a West Slavic language spoken primarily in Poland and is the native language of the Poles. It belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of the West Slavic languages, Polish is the official language of Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries. It is one of the languages of the European Union. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet, which has 9 additions to the letters of the basic Latin script, Polish is closely related to Kashubian, Silesian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Czech and Slovak. It is also the second most widely spoken Slavic language, after Russian, in history, Polish is known to be an important language, both diplomatically and academically in Central and Eastern Europe. Today, Polish is spoken by over 38.5 million people as their first language in Poland. It is also spoken as a language in western parts of Belarus and Ukraine, west and central Lithuania, as well as the northern parts of the Czech Republic. There are 55 million Polish language speakers around the world, Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. With Christianity, Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet, which made it possible to write down Polish, the precursor to modern Polish is the Old Polish language. Ultimately, Polish is thought to descend from the unattested Proto-Slavic language, Poland is the most linguistically homogeneous European country, nearly 97% of Polands citizens declare Polish as their first language. Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in Lithuania, Belarus, Polish is the most widely used minority language in Lithuanias Vilnius County and is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries, in the United States, Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census were found in three states, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services offer services available in Polish at all of their machines in addition to English and Spanish. According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England, in Canada, there is a significant Polish Canadian population, There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to the 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto and Montreal. The geographical distribution of the Polish language was affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II. Poles settled in the Recovered Territories in the west and north and this tendency toward a homogeneity also stems from the vertically integrated nature of the authoritarian Polish Peoples Republic. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak standard Polish somewhat differently, first-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty distinguishing regional variations

8.
Home Army
–
The Home Army was the dominant Polish resistance movement in Poland occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej, over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces. Its allegiance was to the Polish Government-in-Exile, and it constituted the armed wing of what became known as the Polish Underground State, estimates of the Home Armys 1944 strength range between 200,000 and 600,000, the most commonly cited number being 400,000. This last number would make the Home Army not only the largest Polish underground resistance movement, the Home Army was disbanded on 19 January 1945, after the Soviet Red Army had largely cleared Polish territory of German forces. The Home Army sabotaged German operations such as transports headed for the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union and it also fought several full-scale battles against the Germans, particularly in 1943 and in Operation Tempest in 1944. The Home Army, in support of the Soviet military effort, tied down substantial German forces, the most widely known Home Army operation was the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. The Army also defended Polish civilians against atrocities perpetrated by German, because the Home Army was loyal to the Polish Government-in-Exile, the Soviet Union saw it as an obstacle to a Soviet takeover of Poland. Consequently, over the course of the war, conflict grew between the Home Army and Soviet forces, all the while, however, many other resistance organizations remained active in Poland. Most of them merged with the Armed Resistance or with its successor. The Polish Government in Exile envisioned the Home Army as an apolitical, Home Army plans envisioned, at wars end, the seizure of power in Poland by the Government Delegation for Poland and by the Government in Exile itself, which expected to return to Poland. In addition to the Polish government in London, an organization operated in Poland itself - a deliberative body of the resistance. The Political Consultative Committee formed in 1940 pursuant to an agreement between several political parties, the Socialist Party, Peoples Party, National Party and Labor Party. In 1943 it was renamed to Home Political Representation and in 1944 to Council of National Unity, after Germany started its invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, the Soviet Union joined the Allies and signed an Anglo-Soviet Agreement on 12 July 1941. This put the Polish Government in a position, since it had previously pursued a policy of two enemies. Though a Polish-Soviet agreement was signed in August 1941, cooperation continued to be difficult, until the major rising in 1944, the Home Army concentrated on self-defense and on attacks against German forces. The Home Army supplied valuable intelligence to the Allies, 43% of all received by the British secret services from continental Europe in between 1939 and 1945 came from Polish sources. Until 1942 most British intelligence on Germany came from Home Army reports, until the end of the war, the Home Army remained Britains main source of news from Central and Eastern Europe. Home Army intelligence provided the Allies with information on German concentration camps and on the V-1 flying bomb,242, photographs, eight key V-2 parts, and drawings of the wreckage

9.
Polish resistance movement in World War II
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The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European anti-fascist resistance movement. It was a part of the Polish Underground State, the largest of all Polish resistance organizations was the Armia Krajowa, loyal to the Polish government in exile in London. The AK was formed in 1942 from the Union for Armed Combat and it was the military arm of the Polish Underground State and loyal to the Polish government in Exile. Most of the other Polish underground armed organizations were created by a party or faction. Created by the leftist Peoples Party around 1940–1941, it would merge with AK around 1942–1943. The Gwardia Ludowa WRN of Polish Socialist Party The Konfederacja Narodu, created in 1940 by far-right Obóz Narodowo Radykalny-Falanga. It would partially merge with ZWZ around 1941 and finally join AK around fall 1943, the Narodowa Organizacja Wojskowa, established by the National Party in 1939, mostly integrated with AK around 1942. Narodowe Siły Zbrojne, created in 1943 from dissatisfied NOW units, the Obóz Polski Walczącej, established by the Obóz Zjednoczenia Narodowego around 1942, subordinated to AK. in 1943. The largest groups that refused to join the AK were the National Armed Forces, within the framework of the entire enemy intelligence operations directed against Germany, the intelligence service of the Polish resistance movement assumed major significance. Heinrich Himmler,31 December 1942 In February 1942, when AK was formed, in the beginning of 1943, it had reached a strength of about 200,000. In the summer of 1944 when Operation Tempest begun AK reached its highest membership numbers, the strength of the second largest resistance organization, Bataliony Chłopskie, can be estimated for summer 1944 at about 160,000 men. The third largest group include NSZ with approximately 70,000 men around 1943-1944, at its height in 1944, the communist Armia Ludowa, never merged with AK, numbered about 30,000 people. One estimate for the summer 1944 strength of AK and its allies, including NSZ, overall, the Polish resistance have often been described as the largest or one of the largest resistance organizations in World War II Europe. On 9 November 1939, two soldiers of the Polish army—Witold Pilecki and Major Jan Włodarkiewicz—founded the Secret Polish Army, one of the first underground organizations in Poland after defeat. Pilecki became its commander as TAP expanded to cover not only Warsaw but Siedlce, Radom, Lublin. By 1940, TAP had approximately 8,000 men, some 20 machine guns, later, the organization was incorporated into the Union for Armed Struggle, later renamed and better known as the Home Army. A few days later in an ambush near the village of Szałasy it inflicted heavy casualties upon another German unit, to counter this threat the German authorities formed a special 1,000 men strong anti-partisan unit of combined SS–Wehrmacht forces, including a Panzer group. Although the unit of Major Dobrzański never exceeded 300 men, the Germans fielded at least 8,000 men in the area to secure it, in the camp he organized the underground organization -Związek Organizacji Wojskowej - ZOW

10.
Lviv
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Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine and the seventh largest city in the country overall, is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine. Named in honor of the Leo, the eldest son of Rus King Daniel of Galicia. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia from 1272 to 1349, from 1434, it was the regional capital of the Ruthenian Voivodeship in the Kingdom of Poland and was known as Lwów. In 1772, after the First partition of Poland, the city became the capital of the Habsburg Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and was renamed to Lemberg, in 1918 in a short time was the capital of the West Ukrainian Peoples Republic. Between the wars, the city was again as Lwów and was the centre of the Lwów Voivodeship in the Second Polish Republic. After World War II, it part of the Soviet Union. Administratively, Lviv serves as the center of Lviv Oblast and has the status of city of oblast significance. Lviv was the centre of the region of Galicia. The historical heart of the city, with its old buildings and cobblestone streets, survived Soviet, the city has many industries and institutions of higher education such as Lviv University and Lviv Polytechnic. Lviv is also the home of many cultural institutions, including a philharmonic orchestra. The historic city centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, Lviv celebrated its 750th anniversary with a son et lumière in the center of the city in September 2006. Lviv is located on the edge of the Roztochia Upland, approximately 70 kilometers from the Polish border and 160 kilometers from the eastern Carpathian Mountains, the average altitude of Lviv is 296 meters above sea level. Its highest point is the Vysokyi Zamok,409 meters above sea level and this castle has a commanding view of the historic city centre with its distinctive green-domed churches and intricate architecture. The old walled city was at the foothills of the High Castle on the banks of the River Poltva, in the 13th century, the river was used to transport goods. Lvivs climate is continental with cold winters and mild summers. The average temperatures are −3.1 °C in January and 18.3 °C in July, the average annual rainfall is 745 mm with the maximum being in summer. Lviv approximately receives 1,804 hours of sunshine annually, archaeologists have demonstrated that the Lviv area was settled by the 5th century. The area between the Castle Hill and the river Poltva was continuously settled since the 9th century, in 1977 it was discovered that the Orthodox church of St. Nicholas had been built on a previously functioning cemetery

11.
Eastern Front (World War II)
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The battles on the Eastern Front constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres. The Eastern Front, as the site of nearly all extermination camps, death marches, ghettos, of the estimated 70 million deaths attributed to World War II, over 30 million, many of them civilian, occurred on the Eastern Front. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome of the European portion of World War II and it resulted in the destruction of the Third Reich, the partition of Germany for nearly half a century and the rise of the Soviet Union as a military and industrial superpower. The two principal belligerent powers were Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Though never engaged in action in the Eastern Front, the United Kingdom. The joint German–Finnish operations across the northernmost Finnish–Soviet border and in the Murmansk region are considered part of the Eastern Front, in addition, the Soviet–Finnish Continuation War may also be considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front. Despite their ideological antipathy, both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union shared a dislike for the outcome of World War I. The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed in August 1939 was an agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. It contained a secret protocol aiming to return Central Europe to the pre–World War I status quo by dividing it between Germany and the Soviet Union, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would return to Soviet control, while Poland and Romania would be divided. I need the Ukraine so that they cant starve us out, the two powers invaded and partitioned Poland in 1939. The annexations were never recognized by most Western states, the annexed Romanian territory was divided between the Ukrainian and Moldavian Soviet republics. Adolf Hitler had argued in his autobiography Mein Kampf for the necessity of Lebensraum, acquiring new territory for Germans in Eastern Europe, Wehrmacht officers told their troops to target people who were described as Jewish Bolshevik subhumans, the Mongol hordes, the Asiatic flood and the red beast. The vast majority of German soldiers viewed the war in Nazi terms, Hitler referred to the war in unique terms, calling it a war of annihilation which was both an ideological and racial war. In addition, the Nazis also sought to wipe out the large Jewish population of Central, after Germanys initial success at the Battle of Kiev in 1941, Hitler saw the Soviet Union as militarily weak and ripe for immediate conquest. On 3 October 1941, he announced, We have only to kick in the door, thus, Germany expected another short Blitzkrieg and made no serious preparations for prolonged warfare. Throughout the 1930s the Soviet Union underwent massive industrialization and economic growth under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, Stalins central tenet, Socialism in one country, manifested itself as a series of nationwide centralized Five-Year Plans from 1929 onwards. It served as a testing ground for both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army to experiment with equipment and tactics that they would later employ on a wider scale in the Second World War

12.
Gulag
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The Gulag was the government agency that administered and controlled the Soviet forced-labor camp system during Joseph Stalins rule from the 1930s up until the 1950s. The term is commonly used to reference any forced-labor camp in the Soviet Union. The camps housed a range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners. Large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas, the Gulag is recognized as a major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union. The agencys full name was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and it was administered first by the State Political Administration, later by the NKVD and in the final years by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The internment system grew rapidly, reaching a population of 100,000 in the 1920s, the author likened the scattered camps to a chain of islands and as an eyewitness he described the Gulag as a system where people were worked to death. Natalya Reshetovskaya, the wife of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, said in her memoirs that The Gulag Archipelago was based on folklore as opposed to objective facts. In March 1940, there were 53 Gulag camp directorates and 423 labor colonies in the USSR, todays major industrial cities of the Russian Arctic, such as Norilsk, Vorkuta, and Magadan, were originally camps built by prisoners and run by ex-prisoners. About 14 million people were imprisoned in the Gulag labor camps from 1929 to 1953, according to some estimates, the total population of the camps varied from 510,307 in 1934 to 1,727,970 in 1953. According with other estimates, at the beginning of 1953 the total number of prisoners in prison camps was more than 2.4 million of more than 465,000 were political prisoners. The institutional analysis of the Soviet concentration system is complicated by the distinction between GULAG and GUPVI. In many ways the GUPVI system was similar to GULAG and its major function was the organization of foreign forced labor in the Soviet Union. The top management of GUPVI came from the GULAG system, the major noted distinction from GULAG was the absence of convicted criminals in the GUPVI camps. Otherwise the conditions in both systems were similar, hard labor, poor nutrition and living conditions, and high mortality rate. According with the estimates, in total, during the period of the existence of GUPVI there were over 500 POW camps. According to a 1993 study of archival Soviet data, a total of 1,053,829 people died in the Gulag from 1934–53. Some independent estimates are as low as 1.6 million deaths during the period from 1929 to 1953. Most Gulag inmates were not political prisoners, although significant numbers of prisoners could be found in the camps at any one time

13.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states

14.
Red Army
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The Workers and Peasants Red Army was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and after 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution, the Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War. The Red Army is credited as being the land force in the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II. During operations on the Eastern Front, it fought 75%–80% of the German land forces deployed in the war, inflicting the vast majority of all German losses and ultimately capturing the German capital. In September 1917, Vladimir Lenin wrote, There is only one way to prevent the restoration of the police, at the time, the Imperial Russian Army had started to collapse. The Tsarist general Nikolay Dukhonin estimated that there had been 2 million deserters,1.8 million dead,5 million wounded and 2 million prisoners and he estimated the remaining troops as numbering 10 million. Therefore, the Council of Peoples Commissars decided to form the Red Army on 28 January 1918 and they envisioned a body formed from the class-conscious and best elements of the working classes. All citizens of the Russian republic aged 18 or older were eligible, in the event of an entire unit wanting to join the Red Army, a collective guarantee and the affirmative vote of all its members would be necessary. Because the Red Army was composed mainly of peasants, the families of those who served were guaranteed rations, some peasants who remained at home yearned to join the Army, men, along with some women, flooded the recruitment centres. If they were turned away they would collect scrap metal and prepare care-packages, in some cases the money they earned would go towards tanks for the Army. Nikolai Krylenko was the supreme commander-in-chief, with Aleksandr Myasnikyan as deputy, Nikolai Podvoisky became the commissar for war, Pavel Dybenko, commissar for the fleet. Proshyan, Samoisky, Steinberg were also specified as peoples commissars as well as Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich from the Bureau of Commissars, at a joint meeting of Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, held on 22 February 1918, Krylenko remarked, We have no army. The Red Guard units are brushed aside like flies and we have no power to stay the enemy, only an immediate signing of the peace treaty will save us from destruction. This provoked the insurrection of General Alexey Maximovich Kaledins Volunteer Army in the River Don region, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk aggravated Russian internal politics. The situation encouraged direct Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, a series of engagements resulted, involving, amongst others, the Czechoslovak Legion, the Polish 5th Rifle Division, and the pro-Bolshevik Red Latvian Riflemen. The Whites defeated the Red Army on each front, Leon Trotsky reformed and counterattacked, the Red Army repelled Admiral Kolchaks army in June, and the armies of General Denikin and General Yudenich in October. By mid-November the White armies were all almost completely exhausted, in January 1920, Budennys First Cavalry Army entered Rostov-on-Don. 1919 to 1923 At the wars start, the Red Army consisted of 299 infantry regiments, Civil war intensified after Lenin dissolved the Russian Constituent Assembly and the Soviet government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, removing Russia from the Great War

15.
Volhynia
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Volhynia or Volyn is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe straddling Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. The borders of the region are not clearly defined, while the territory that still carries the name is Volyn Oblast, Volhynia has changed hands numerous times throughout history and been divided among competing powers. Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, it has been part of the independent nation of Ukraine, among important cities are Lutsk, Rivne, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Iziaslav, Novohrad-Volynskyi. In other versions, the city was located over 20 km to the west of Volodymyr-Volynskyi near the mouth of Huczwa River, before the partitions of Poland, eastern edge stretched a little west along the right-banks of Sluch River or just east of it. Volhynia is located in basins of Western Bug and Prypyat, therefore most of its rivers flow either in northern or western directions, relative to other historical regions, it is northeast of Galicia, east of Lesser Poland, and northwest of Podolia. The borders of the region are not clearly defined, and it is considered to overlap a number of other regions, among which are Polesia. Territories of historical Volhynia are now part of the Volyn, Rivne, major cities include Lutsk, Rivne, Kovel, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Kremenets, and Starokostiantyniv. Before World War II, many Jewish shtetls, such as Trochenbrod, at one time all of Volhynia was part of the Pale of Settlement designated by Imperial Russia on its southwesternmost border. The land was mentioned in works of the Arabian scholar Al-Masudi who denoted the local tribe as people of Valin, in his work of 947-948 Al-Masudi mentions that Valinians as an intertribal union were ruled by their leader Madjak. In the opinion of Ukrainian historian Yuriy Dyba, the chronicle phrase «и оустави по мьстѣ, и по лузѣ погосты и дань и ѡброкы» reflects the actual route of the Olgas raid against Drevlians further to the west up to the Western Bugs right tributary Luha River. As early as 983, Vladimir the Great appointed his son Vsevolod the ruler of the Volhynian Principality and in 988 established the city of Volodymer. The first records can be traced to the Ruthenian chronicles, such as the Primary Chronicle, which mentions tribes of the Dulebe, Buzhan, volhynias early history coincides with that of the duchies or principalities of Halych and Volhynia. These two successor states of the Kievan Rus formed Halych-Volhynia between the 12th and the 14th centuries, after 1569 Volhynia formed a province of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During this period many Poles and Jews settled in the area, the Roman and Greek Catholic churches became established in the province. In 1375 was established a Roman Catholic Diocese of Lodomeria but it was suppressed in 1425, many Orthodox churches joined the latter organization in order to benefit from a more attractive legal status. Records of the first agricultural colonies of Mennonites date from 1783, after the Third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Volhynia was annexed as the Volhynian Governorate of the Russian Empire. It covered an area of 71,852.7 square kilometers, many Roman Catholic church buildings were also given to the Russian Church, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lutsk was suppressed on orders of Empress Catherine II. In 1897, the population amounted to 2,989,482 people and it consisted of 73.7 percent East Slavs,13.2 percent Jews,6.2 percent Poles, and 5.7 percent Germans

16.
Tarnopol Voivodeship
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Tarnopol Voivodeship was an administrative region of interwar Poland with an area of 16,500 km² and provincial capital in Tarnopol. The voivodeship was divided into 17 districts, the Polish population was forcibly resettled after the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Tarnopol Voivodeship was incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. Since 1991, most of the region is located in the Ternopil Oblast in sovereign Ukraine, during the German-Soviet invasion of Poland in accordance with the secret protocol of Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet forces allied with Nazi Germany invaded eastern Poland on September 17,1939. As the bulk of the Polish Army was concentrated in the west fighting the Germans, Tarnopol was occupied as early as September 18,1939 without substantial opposition from the Poles, and remained in Soviet hands till Operation Barbarossa. Monuments were destroyed, street names changed, bookshops closed, library collections stolen, the province was Sovietized in the atmosphere of terror. Families were deported to Siberia in cattle trains, mainly Polish Christians, during the German attack on the Soviet positions in eastern Poland, Tarnopol was overrun by the Wehrmacht on July 2,1941. A Jewish pogrom lasted from July 4 until July 11,1941, with homes destroyed, synagogue burned and Polish Jews killed indiscriminately at various locations, estimated between 1,600 and 2,000. In September 1941, the German occupation authorities established Jewish ghettos in a number of towns including the Tarnopol Ghetto with 12, death penalty was introduced, and food severely rationed. Forced labour camps for Jewish slave workers were established by the Germans in the settlements of Kamionka, Podwołoczyska, Hluboczka, the ghetto in the capital was liquidated between August 1942 and June 1943. The victims were sent in Holocaust trains to Bełżec extermination camp, many Jews were denounced by Ukrainian nationalists including shortly before the Soviets took over the area in 1944. Those who survived World War II were rescued by the Poles, the slaughter of civilians, women and children alike lasted well into 1945 beyond the Soviet front, conducted by OUN-UPA death squads, while crossing the new borders imposed at Yalta by the Allies. The capital of Tarnopol Voivodeship was Tarnopol, after the rebirth of Poland, according to Polish census of 1921, the province was inhabited by 1,428,520 people with population density at 88 persons per km². Within the total number of inhabitants there were 447,810 Roman Catholics, ten years later, the next national census of September 1931 was conducted using different criteria. The respondents were asked about their mother tongue and religion, the population density grew to 97 persons per km2. The overlapping of religious denominations presented the community as integrated to a considerable degree, meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of Ruthenian speakers were Greco Catholics, like Ukrainians, and only 7,625 of them were Roman Catholics. Jews constituted 44% of the diverse makeup of Tarnopol, speaking both, Yiddish and Hebrew. Religion was 60% Greek Catholic, 31% Roman Catholic, 9% Jewish, the Voivodeships area was 16,533 square kilometers. The landscape was hilly, with the Podole upland covering large part of the Voivodeship, in the north-west there is the Gologory range with the Kamula mountain as the highest peak

17.
Bug River
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The Bug River is a major European river which flows through three countries with a total length of 830 kilometres. The name Bug probably came from the old Germanic word baug-s which meant something winding, genual, slavs adopted the word Baug from the Goths who previously lived in large numbers near the river. Traditionally the Bug River was also considered the ethnographical border between the Orthodox and Catholic Polish peoples. The Bug was the line between German Wehrmacht and Russian Red Army forces following the 1939 invasion of Poland in the Second World War. Bug River is a tributary of the Narew river. It joins the Narew river at Serock, a few kilometers upstream of the artificial Zegrze Lake and it is connected with the Dnieper River via the Mukhavets River, a right-bank tributary, by the Dnieper-Bug Canal. On the Bug River, a few kilometers from the Vysokaye in Kamenets District of the Brest Region, is the westernmost point of Belarus. The total basin area of Bug River is 39,400 square kilometres of which half,19,300 square kilometres or, 50%, is in Poland. Little over a quarter,11,400 square kilometres or 26%, is in Belarus, the climate of the Bug basin is temperate. The basin experiences annual high-water levels during spring flooding due to thawing snow, occasional summer floods often occur in the headlands, where mountains influence favorable flash-flood conditions. In Autumn the water level increases are inconsiderable, in years they do not happen at all. During the winter the river can have temporary ice-outs that sometimes provoke ice jams, the resultant water levels are changeable due to the instability of ice cover. Significant floods during the last 60 years in Belarus were registered in 1958,1962,1967,1971 and 1974, the largest spring flood was observed in 1979, when the maximum water discharge was 19. A similar spring flood occurred in 1999, when the spring run-off in March–May exceeded the annual value by almost half again. The last time the Bug flooded in Poland and Ukraine was in 2010, southern Bug Bug Landscape Park Rivers of Poland Rivers of Ukraine Geography of Poland Geography of Ukraine Bug in the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland

18.
Polish Secret State
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The first elements of the Underground State were established in the final days of the German invasion of Poland that began in September 1939. The Underground State encompassed not only military resistance, one of the largest in the world, although the Underground State enjoyed broad support throughout much of the war, it was not supported or recognized by the far left. Influence of the communists eventually declined amid military reversals and the hostility of the USSR. The Soviet Union had created an alternative, puppet government in 1944, during the Soviet-backed communist takeover of Poland at the end of the war, many Underground State members were prosecuted as alleged traitors and died in captivity. Ultimately, hundreds of thousands of people were involved with various agencies of the Underground State. The rationale behind the creation of the civilian authority drew on the fact that the German. Hence, all created by the occupying powers were considered illegal. During the Cold War era, research on the Underground State was curtailed by Polish communist officials, hence, until recently, the bulk of research done on this topic was carried out by Polish scholars living in exile. In many respects, the history of the Polish Underground State mirrors that of the Polish non-communist resistance in general, SZP founder General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski received orders from Polish Commander-in-Chief Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły to organize and carry out the struggle in occupied Poland. This government was recognized by France and the United Kingdom. Raczkiewicz, described as weak and indecisive, held little influence compared to charismatic Sikorski. Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski supported that move, aiming to include parties marginalized by the Sanacja regime, Sikorski named General Kazimierz Sosnkowski the head of the ZWZ and Colonel Stefan Rowecki was appointed the commander of the ZWZ German occupation zone. Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski became the commander of the ZWZ Soviet zone, but was arrested in March 1940 by the Soviets when attempting to cross the new German-Soviet border, in June Sikorski appointed Rowecki as the commander of both zones. Sikorskis government opted for a more democratic procedure then the less democratic prewar Sanacja regime. The National Council was formed by the government in exile in December 1939, the structures in occupied Poland maintained close communication with the government in exile, through radio communications and hundreds, if not thousands of couriers, such as Jan Karski. The post of the Delegate could be seen as equivalent to that of a Deputy Prime Minister, unlike the GRP and PKP, which operated alongside the military structures but had no influence over them, the Delegation had budgetary control over the military. The Delegation was to oversee the military, and recreate the civilian administration, as early as 1940, the Underground States civilian arm was actively supporting underground education, it then set out to develop social security, information and justice networks. By 1942, most of the differences between politicians in occupied Poland and those in exile had been positively settled, by 1943, the PKP had evolved into the Home Political Representation, which served as the basis of the Council of National Unity, created on 9 January 1944

19.
14th Regiment of Jazlowiec Uhlans
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14th Regiment of Jazlowiec Uhlans was a cavalry unit of the Polish Army in the Second Polish Republic, also a unit of Polish Armed Forces in the West and the Home Army. Stationed in the period in the garrison of Lwów, it was named after the village of Jazlowiec. The regiment dates back to February 1918, when a Polish squadron was formed in the town of Ungheni and this unit consisted of ethnic Poles, who had served in the Imperial Russian Army. After a failed attempt to join Polish II Corps in Russia, and facing a German disarming, together with other units of the White movement, Polish squadron marched to Kuban in southern Russia, where it fought the Red Army. In mid-August 1918, following an agreement between the Volunteer Army and General Lucjan Zeligowski, the unit was subjected to Polish military authorities of the region of Kuban, soon afterwards, it was reorganized into a two-squadron unit, commanded by Major Konstanty Plisowski. In October, the squadron was formed, and the name of the whole unit was changed into Cavalry Regiment. In late January 1919, the regiment was shipped from Kuban to Odessa, where a number of volunteers joined it, at that time, the regiment had 98 officers and 530 soldiers, together with machine gunners and communications platoon. Elements of the regiment fought alongside French, Greek and White Russian forces, near Odessa, when in April 1919 allied forces decided to leave southern Ukraine, the regiment covered the retreat, crossing the Dniester river as the last unit. After a two-month stay in Bessarabia, the regiment entered Poland on June 15,1919, in late June 1919, the regiment began fighting in the Polish-Ukrainian War. The uhlans clashed with the enemy in several locations of former Austrian Galicia, after this battle, the Lady of Jazlowiec became patron saint of the regiment, and regimental flag was founded by former students of the monastery school. After pushing Ukrainian forces behind the Zbruch river, the regiment marched to Volhynia, in August 1919, it was officially named the 14th Regiment of Jazlowiec Uhlans. It fought with distinction in the Polish-Soviet War, participating in the Kiev Offensive, in recognition of their outstanding bravery, several of its officers and soldiers were awarded the Virtuti Militari and the Cross of Valour. In 1921–1939, the regiment was garrisoned in the city of Lwów and its flag was awarded the Virtiti Militari 5th Class, in a ceremony on March 20,1921. The ceremony was attended by Marshal Józef Piłsudski, in the 1939 Invasion of Poland, the regiment belonged to Podolska Cavalry Brigade, as part of Łódź Army. Mobilized on August 27, it was transported by rail from Lwów to the town of Nekla, near Września. As part of Cavalry Operational Group of General Stanislaw Grzmot-Skotnicki, the 14th Regiment of Jazlowiec Uhlans fought in the Battle of the Bzura, in the area of Łęczyca, Łowicz and Stryków. After the death of General Grzmot-Skotnicki, the group was commanded by General Roman Abraham, on September 17, near the village of Gorki, the uhlans fought a heavy battle with the advancing Wehrmacht. After the clash, the group at first marched towards Modlin, but soon General Abraham changed his order, on September 19, in the Battle of Wolka Weglowa, the Jazlowiec uhlans managed to defeat the enemy and enter Warsaw

20.
Ukrainian Auxiliary Police
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The Ukrainian Auxiliary Police was created by Heinrich Himmler in mid-August 1941 and put under the control of German Ordnungspolizei in General Government territory. The actual Reichskommissariat Ukraine was formed officially on 20 August 1941, the uniformed force was composed in large part of the former members of the Ukrainian Peoples Militia created by OUN in June. There were two categories of German-controlled Ukrainian armed organisations and it was subordinated directly to the German Commander of the Order Police for the area. Notably, the District of Galicia was an administrative unit from the actual Reichskommissariat Ukraine. They were not connected with other politically. The UP formations appeared as further east in German occupied Soviet Ukraine in significant towns. The urban based forces were subordinated to the citys German Commander of State protection police, the Schupo and Gendarmerie structures were themselves subordinated to the area Commander of Order Police. The local municipal police force in the occupied Ukrainian SSR came into existence right after the commencement of Operation Barbarossa and it was the result of an order issued on 27 July 1941 by the German commander in chief of the Order Police in occupied Kraków. The Ukrainian auxiliary police in the new District of Galicia fell under the command of the German office for the General Government, an actual ethnic Ukrainian command centre did not exist. The top Ukrainian police officer, Vladimir Pitulay, rose to the rank of major, a police school was established in Lviv by the district SS-and-Police Leader in order to meet plans for growth. The school director was Ivan Kozak, the total number of enlisted men in the new politically independent Distrikt Galizien amounted to some 6,000 volunteers including 120 low-level officers who served there. The units were used primarily to keep order and carry out constabulary duties and their actions were restricted by other police groups such as the Sonderdienst, made up of Volksdeutsche, the Kripo, Bahnschutz, and the Werkschutz, who kept order and guarded industrial plants. They were supported by the Ukrainian Protection Police and the Ukrainian Order Police, in the newly formed Reichskommissariat Ukraine the auxiliary police forces were named Schutzmannschaft, and amounted to more than 35,000 men. The names of battalions reflected their geographic jurisdiction, the make-up of the officer corps was representative of Germanys foreign policy. Many of those who joined the ranks of the police had served as militiamen under Soviet rule since the invasion of Poland in 1939. However, Browning and Lower both insist that, for the German administration, nobody but the Ukrainians and local ethnic Germans could be relied upon to assist with the killing, also, according to Aleksandr Prusin most members were ethnically Ukrainian, hence the name or the force. The auxiliary police were directly under the command of the Germanic-SS, the Einsatzgruppen, German historian Dieter Pohl in The Shoah in Ukraine writes that the auxiliary police was active during killing operations by the Germans already in the first phases of the German occupation. The auxiliary police registered the Jews, conducted raids and guarded ghettos, loaded convoys to execution sites, some 300 auxiliary policemen from Kiev helped organize the massacre in Babi Yar

21.
Wehrmacht
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The Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1946. It consisted of the Heer, the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler’s most overt and audacious moves was to establish the Wehrmacht, a modern armed forces fully capable of offensive use. In December 1941, Hitler designated himself as commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, the Wehrmacht formed the heart of Germany’s politico-military power. In the early part of World War II, Hitlers generals employed the Wehrmacht through innovative combined arms tactics to devastating effect in what was called a Blitzkrieg, the Wehrmachts new military structure, unique combat techniques, newly developed weapons, and unprecedented speed and brutality crushed their opponents. Closely cooperating with the SS, the German armed forces committed war crimes and atrocities. By the time the war ended in Europe in May 1945, only a few of the Wehrmacht’s upper leadership were tried for war crimes, despite evidence suggesting that more were involved in illegal actions. The German term Wehrmacht generically describes any nations armed forces, for example, the Frankfurt Constitution of 1848 designated all German military forces as the German Wehrmacht, consisting of the Seemacht and the Landmacht. In 1919, the term Wehrmacht also appears in Article 47 of the Weimar Constitution, establishing that, from 1919, Germanys national defense force was known as the Reichswehr, a name that was dropped in favor of Wehrmacht on 21 May 1935. In January 1919, after World War I ended with the signing of the armistice of 11 November 1918, in March 1919, the national assembly passed a law founding a 420, 000-strong preliminary army, the Vorläufige Reichswehr. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced in May, the army was limited to one hundred thousand men with an additional fifteen thousand in the navy. The fleet was to consist of at most six battleships, six cruisers, submarines, tanks and heavy artillery were forbidden and the air-force was dissolved. A new post-war military, the Reichswehr, was established on 23 March 1921, General conscription was abolished under another mandate of the Versailles treaty. The Reichswehr was limited to 115,000 men, and thus the armed forces, under the leadership of Hans von Seeckt, though Seeckt retired in 1926, the army that went to war in 1939 was largely his creation. Germany was forbidden to have an air-force by the Versailles treaty, nonetheless and these officers saw the role of an air-force as winning air-superiority, tactical and strategic bombing and providing ground support. That the Luftwaffe did not develop a strategic bombing force in the 1930s was not due to a lack of interest, but because of economic limitations. The leadership of the Navy led by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, officers who believed in submarine warfare led by Admiral Karl Dönitz were in a minority before 1939. By 1922, Germany had begun covertly circumventing the conditions of the Versailles Treaty, a secret collaboration with the Soviet Union began after the treaty of Rapallo. Major-General Otto Hasse traveled to Moscow in 1923 to further negotiate the terms, Germany helped the Soviet Union with industrialization and Soviet officers were to be trained in Germany

22.
Reconnaissance
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In military operations, reconnaissance is the exploration outside an area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about natural features and enemy presence. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops, ships or submarines, manned/unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, satellites, espionage normally is not reconnaissance, because reconnaissance is a militarys special forces operating ahead of its main forces, spies are non-combatants operating behind enemy lines. Often called recce or recon, the verb is reconnaître. Traditionally, reconnaissance was a role that was adopted by the cavalry, speed was key in these maneuvers, thus infantry was ill suited to the task. From horses to vehicles, for warriors throughout history, commanders procured their ability to have speed and mobility, to mount and dismount, skirmishing is a traditional skill of reconnaissance, as well as harassment of the enemy. Reconnaissance conducted by ground forces includes special reconnaissance, armored reconnaissance, amphibious reconnaissance, aerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance carried out by aircraft. The purpose is to weather conditions, map terrain, and may include military purposes such as observing tangible structures, particular areas. Naval forces use aerial and satellite reconnaissance to observe enemy forces, navies also undertake hydrographic surveys and intelligence gathering. Reconnaissance satellites provide military commanders with photographs of enemy forces and other intelligence, military forces also use geographical and meteorological information from Earth observation satellites. A tracker needs to pay attention to both the environment and the psychology of his enemy. Knowledge of human psychology, sociology, and cultural backgrounds is necessary to know the actions of the enemy and this is almost as necessary as to know the physical character of the country, its climate and products. Certain people will do certain things almost without fail, certain other things, perfectly feasible, they will not do. There is no danger of knowing too much of the habits of an enemy. One should neither underestimate the enemy nor credit him with superhuman powers, fear and courage are latent in every human being, though roused into activity by very diverse means. Types of reconnaissance, Terrain-oriented reconnaissance is a survey of the terrain, force-oriented reconnaissance focuses on the enemy forces and may include target acquisition. Civil-oriented reconnaissance focuses on the dimension of the battlespace. The techniques and objectives are not mutually exclusive, it is up to the commander whether they are carried out separately or by the same unit, some military elements tasked with reconnaissance are armed only for self-defense, and rely on stealth to gather information. Others are well-enough armed to also deny information to the enemy by destroying their reconnaissance elements, reconnaissance-in-force is a type of military operation or military tactics used specifically to probe an enemys disposition

23.
Polish Underground State
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The first elements of the Underground State were established in the final days of the German invasion of Poland that began in September 1939. The Underground State encompassed not only military resistance, one of the largest in the world, although the Underground State enjoyed broad support throughout much of the war, it was not supported or recognized by the far left. Influence of the communists eventually declined amid military reversals and the hostility of the USSR. The Soviet Union had created an alternative, puppet government in 1944, during the Soviet-backed communist takeover of Poland at the end of the war, many Underground State members were prosecuted as alleged traitors and died in captivity. Ultimately, hundreds of thousands of people were involved with various agencies of the Underground State. The rationale behind the creation of the civilian authority drew on the fact that the German. Hence, all created by the occupying powers were considered illegal. During the Cold War era, research on the Underground State was curtailed by Polish communist officials, hence, until recently, the bulk of research done on this topic was carried out by Polish scholars living in exile. In many respects, the history of the Polish Underground State mirrors that of the Polish non-communist resistance in general, SZP founder General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski received orders from Polish Commander-in-Chief Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły to organize and carry out the struggle in occupied Poland. This government was recognized by France and the United Kingdom. Raczkiewicz, described as weak and indecisive, held little influence compared to charismatic Sikorski. Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski supported that move, aiming to include parties marginalized by the Sanacja regime, Sikorski named General Kazimierz Sosnkowski the head of the ZWZ and Colonel Stefan Rowecki was appointed the commander of the ZWZ German occupation zone. Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski became the commander of the ZWZ Soviet zone, but was arrested in March 1940 by the Soviets when attempting to cross the new German-Soviet border, in June Sikorski appointed Rowecki as the commander of both zones. Sikorskis government opted for a more democratic procedure then the less democratic prewar Sanacja regime. The National Council was formed by the government in exile in December 1939, the structures in occupied Poland maintained close communication with the government in exile, through radio communications and hundreds, if not thousands of couriers, such as Jan Karski. The post of the Delegate could be seen as equivalent to that of a Deputy Prime Minister, unlike the GRP and PKP, which operated alongside the military structures but had no influence over them, the Delegation had budgetary control over the military. The Delegation was to oversee the military, and recreate the civilian administration, as early as 1940, the Underground States civilian arm was actively supporting underground education, it then set out to develop social security, information and justice networks. By 1942, most of the differences between politicians in occupied Poland and those in exile had been positively settled, by 1943, the PKP had evolved into the Home Political Representation, which served as the basis of the Council of National Unity, created on 9 January 1944

24.
Polish government-in-exile
–
Only after the end of Communist rule in Poland did the government-in-exile formally pass on its responsibilities to the new government of the Third Polish Republic in December 1990. The government-in-exile was based in France during 1939 and 1940, first in Paris, from 1940, following the Fall of France, the government moved to London, and remained in the United Kingdom until its dissolution in 1990. Should the Presidents successor assume office, the term of his office shall expire at the end of three months after the conclusion of peace and it was not until 29th or 30th September 1939 that Mościcki resigned. Raczkiewicz, who was already in Paris, immediately took his constitutional oath at the Polish Embassy and he then appointed General Władysław Sikorski to be Prime Minister and, following Edward Rydz-Śmigłys stepping down, made Sikorski Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces. Most of the Polish Navy escaped to Britain, and tens of thousands of Polish soldiers and airmen escaped through Hungary, Polish citizens held captive in Soviet camps were released under the Sikorski–Mayski Agreement to form military units that would fight Nazi Germany under Allied command. Berlings Army formed in the Soviet Union in 1944 fought alongside, even after the fall of Poland, Poland remained the third strongest Allied belligerent, after France and Britain. The Polish government in exile, based first in Paris, then in Angers, France, escaping from France the government relocated to London, it was recognized by all the Allied governments. The amnesty allowed the Poles to create eight military divisions known as the Anders Army and they were evacuated to Iran and the Middle East, where they were desperately needed by the British, hard pressed by Rommels Afrika Korps. These Polish units formed the basis for the Polish II Corps, led by General Władysław Anders and it was also the first official document singling out the sufferings of European Jews as Jews and not only as citizens of their respective countries of origin. The note of 10 december 1942 and the Polish Governmnent efforts triggered the Declaration of the Allied Nations of 17 December 1942, the Soviet government said that the Germans had fabricated the discovery. The other Allied governments, for reasons, formally accepted this. Stalin then severed relations with the Polish government in exile, since it was clear that it would be the Soviet Union, not the western Allies, who would liberate Poland from the Germans, this breach had fateful consequences for Poland. In an unfortunate coincidence, Sikorski, widely regarded as the most capable of the Polish exile leaders, was killed in an air crash at Gibraltar in July 1943 and he was succeeded as head of the Polish government in exile by Stanisław Mikołajczyk. During 1943 and 1944, the Allied leaders, particularly Winston Churchill, but these efforts broke down over several matters. Mikołajczyk, however, refused to compromise on the question of Polands sovereignty over her prewar eastern territories, a third matter was Mikołajczyks insistence that Stalin not set up a Communist government in postwar Poland. Mikołajczyk and his colleagues in the Polish government-in-exile insisted on making a stand in the defense of Polands pre-1939 eastern border as a basis for the future Polish-Soviet border. However, this was a position that could not be defended in practice – Stalin was in occupation of the territory in question, many Polish exiles opposed this action, believing that this government was a façade for the establishment of Communist rule in Poland. This view was proven correct in 1947, when the Communist-dominated Democratic Bloc won a blatantly rigged election

25.
Government Delegate's Office at Home
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The Government Delegation for Poland was an agency of the Polish Government in Exile during World War II. It was the highest authority of the Polish Secret State in occupied Poland and it was headed by the Government Delegate for Poland, a de facto deputy Polish Prime Minister. The Government Delegation for Poland was intended as the first provisional government of wartorn Poland until the Exiled Polish Government could safely return from abroad to a liberated Poland. Initially there were two Delegations formed, one for the Polish areas annexed by Germany, and one for the General Government, a delegate for the Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union was never appointed. From 1942, power was consolidated and there was one delegate chosen. He in turn had 6 deputies for each of the regions, in July 1944 the delegates three deputies were promoted to ministers, and a Home Council of Ministers was created. The Home Council became the counterpart of the Polish Government in Exile. The Delegations political body was the Political Consultative Committee, a council comprising 4 main political parties and it became the controlling body of the Delegation and the Headquarters of the Home Army. On January 9,1944, it was turned into a Council of National Unity, during the Warsaw Uprising, the central Government Delegation for Poland likewise came out of hiding and began acting officially as the Polish parliament in the liberated areas of Poland. After the Uprisings suppression, most of the Delegations members left Warsaw with the civilian population, however, contact with local branches in Soviet- and German-occupied areas was broken. Meanwhile, in Poland, the Delegation was reconstructed and continued in its duties until disbanded on July 1,1945. The Delegations activities encompassed all areas of organized society and it comprised 12 branches, roughly corresponding to the ministries of the Polish government-in-exile in London. Other notable units and bureaus included, Bureau of the Newly Acquired Lands Established 1942, the Bureaus main task was to document the Polish claims on German lands east of the Oder river and the area of Prussia as well as planning of their post-war development. Delegatura Rządu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na Kraj, Warsaw, Chancellery of the Sejm and Sejm Press. Grzegorz Ostasz, The Polish Government-in-Exiles Home Delegature

26.
Council of National Unity
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Rada Jedności Narodowej was the quasi-parliament of the Polish Underground State during World War II. It was created by the Government Delegate on 9 January 1944, originally the political arm of the Polish Secret State was Political Consultative Committee, a council composed of 4 main political parties. It became the body of both the Delegates Office and the Headquarters of the Armia Krajowa. On 9 January 1944 it was turned into Council of National Unity, initially only the rump council was chosen, composed mostly of members of the former KRP. On 12 March of the year the Council was extended to include more members. RJN was opposed to the communist-controlled quasi-parliament, State National Council, on 15 March 1944, the RJN declared its manifesto named O co walczy naród polski. The Polish political system was to be based on parliamentary democracy, the RJN also declared the will to develop the Polish industry and base the economy on socialist principles of planned economy and land reform. During the Warsaw Uprising the RJN issued several appeals and open letters to the western powers asking to help Warsaw, on 22 February 1945, protested against the outcome of the Yalta Conference and the fact that no representatives of Poland were informed of the meeting. At the same time the RJN proposed to accept communist into the provisional government, after the Red Army conquered Poland, the members of the RJN remained underground. In March 1945 large part of them were arrested by the NKVD, after 3 months of interrogations, the members of the Polish government were sentenced in the Trial of the Sixteen. Until May 1945 the RJN was reconstructed from the remaining members, however, the Soviet occupation of Poland and the end of World War II made the further existence of RJN pointless. After issuing the documents, the RJN was dissolved, since Poland was still under enemy occupation and no elections could be held, it was decided that the RJN would include representatives of all major political parties of Poland. Initially it included representatives of Socialist Party, Peoples Party, Labor Party and National Party, in July 1944 the RJN was extended to include also representatives of Chłopska Organizacja Wolności, Ojczyzna, ZD and representatives of co-operative movement. The RJN was headed by the Main Commission, after he was arrested and sentenced in a staged Trial of the Sixteen, the Main Commission was headed by various politicians, chosen from among the remainder of the council for a 1-month term

27.
Directorate of Civil Resistance
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Directorate of Civil Resistance was one of the branches of the Polish Government Delegate’s Office during World War II. Its main tasks were to maintain the morale of the Polish society, encourage passive resistance, report German atrocities and cruelties to the Polish Government in Exile, in addition, it was responsible for the law and justice in occupied Poland. It organized trials of traitors, collaborators and provocateurs as well as the most cruel members of the Wehrmacht, Gestapo, the verdicts varied from boycott, fines, and lash to capital punishment. The trials were carried out by civil Special Courts and the verdicts were enforced by the Państwowy Korpus Bezpieczeństwa, from 1942 on, the KWC also prosecuted crimes such as theft, rape, and murder. The KWC was headed by Stefan Korboński, in 1943 it was joined with Directorate of Covert Resistance and formed the Directorate of Underground Resistance

28.
Polish Socialist Party
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The Polish Socialist Party was a left-wing Polish political party, it was one of the most important parties in Poland from its inception in 1892 until its dissolution in 1948. A party with the name was established in 1987 but has remained at the margins of Polish politics. Józef Piłsudski, founder of the resurrected Polish state, was a member and later leader of the PPS in the early 20th century, the PPS was founded in Paris in 1892. In November 1892 the leading personalities of the PPS agreed on a political program, however, the Revolutionary Faction became dominant and renamed itself back again to the PPS, while the Left was eclipsed, and in 1918 merged with SDKPiL forming the Communist Party of Poland. In 1917-18 the party participated in the Central Council of Ukraine, many PPS leaders and members were put on trial by Piłsudskis regime and jailed in the infamous Bereza Kartuska prison. The party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International between 1923 and 1940, the party supported the Polish resistance during World War II as the underground Polish Socialist Party – Freedom, Equality, Independence. In 1948 it suffered a split, as the communists applied the salami tactics to dismember any opposition. One faction, which included Edward Osóbka-Morawski wanted to join forces with the Polish Peasant Party, another faction, led by Józef Cyrankiewicz, argued that the Socialists should support the Communists in carrying through a socialist program, while opposing the imposition of one-party rule. Pre-war political hostilities continued to influence events, and Stanisław Mikołajczyk, leader of the Peasant Party, the Communists played on these divisions by dismissing Osóbka-Morawski and making Cyrankiewicz Prime Minister. A new party of the name, which seeks to carry on the tradition of the original PPS, was established by left-wing opposition figures such as Jan Józef Lipski in 1987. However, the new PPS remains a marginal group within the landscape of the Third Republic. Its main propaganda outlet was the Robotnik newspaper

29.
National Party (Poland)
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The National Party was a Polish nationalist political party formed on 7 October 1928 after the transformation of Popular National Union. It gathered together most of the forces of Polands National Democracy right-wing political camp. SN was one of the opponents of the Sanacja regime. Shortly before World War II the party had 200,000 members, in the 1930s the two main factions competed within the party, the old generation and young generation, divided by the age and political programmes. The old generation supported the parliamentary means of competition, while the activist young generation advocated the extra-parliamentary means of political struggle. In 1935 the young activists took over the leadership of the party, in 1934 a significant part of the young faction split off from the SN, forming the National-Radical Camp. During World War II, many SN activists joined the National Armed Forces, the main goal of the party was the construction of a Catholic Polish State, through combining the principles of Catholicism and Nationalism. The party advocated a hierarchical organisation of society and the transformation of the system by increasing the role of the Polish National elite within the country. The SN organised numerous rallies and demonstrations against the policies of the Sanacja government and it had the most influential political centres in Greater Poland, Pomerania, Warsaw, Wilno and Lwów. The young generation was represented by Tadeusz Bielecki, Jędrzej Giertych, Kazimierz Kowalski, Adam Doboszyński, Karol Stojanowski, Tadeusz Dworak, Karol Frycz, Witold Nowosad and Stefan Sacha. During the period of the Polish Peoples Republic the organization was outlawed in Poland and it was re-established in Warsaw in 1989 by Jan Ostoj Matłachowski, Leon Mirecki, Maciej Giertych, Boguslaw Jeznach, Bogusław Rybicki, and others. The new SN was officially registered on 21 August 1990 in sovereign Poland after the fall of communism in 1989, most of its members eventually entered the League of Polish Families and dissolved the National Party in 2001

30.
Camp of National Unity
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The attempt failed as another Sanacja politician, President Ignacy Mościcki, likewise had a large following, nevertheless, substantial numbers of people did throw their lot in with Rydz-Śmigły. On February 21,1937, diplomat and Colonel Adam Koc formally announced the formation of OZN and its stated aims were to improve Polands national defense and to safeguard the April 1935 Constitution. The OZN adopted 13 theses on the Jewish question, modeled after the Nuremberg laws, they labelled Jews as a foreign element that should be deprived of all civil rights and ultimately expelled altogether. However, because the OZN was a political grouping without actual concrete political power, OZNs first official leader was Adam Koc, and its second was General Stanisław Skwarczyński. After the 1939 German invasion of Poland and the start of World War II, in 1937, OZN claimed some 40, 000–50,000 members, in 1938,100,000. During World War II and the German occupation of Poland, OZNs underground military arm, nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government National Radical Camp Wynot, Jr. Edward D. A Necessary Cruelty, The Emergence of Official Anti-Semitism in Poland, the American Historical Review, Vol.76, No.4. The Camp of National Unity, An Experiment in Domestic Consolidation

31.
Democratic Party (Poland)
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The Alliance of Democrats is a Polish centrist party. The party faced a revival in 2009, when it was joined by liberal politician Paweł Piskorski, the Alliance of Democrats has its origins in the Democratic Clubs, which were opposed to authoritarian and nationalistic tendencies in the Second Republic of Poland between the two World Wars. The national founding convention of the Alliance of Democrats was held on 15 April 1939, the Declaration of Policy included such issues as improvement of the national economy, a development plan to raise the level of education, and modernisation of the armed forces. Mieczysław Michałowicz, a member of the Senate, was appointed the first party leader of the Alliance, during World War II, a significant number of Alliance members were involved in the anti-Nazi Polish underground. One of its leader was active in the Vila Ghetto. It was partly due to their initiative that Żegota, the Council for Aid to Jews, was founded in 1942 as well as the Social Organisation for Self-Defence. The Alliance of Democrats and other political and social set up the Association of Democrats, which then entered the Council of National Unity. The London faction ceased to exist in 1945, in the Peoples Republic of Poland SD became a satellite party of the communist Polish United Workers Party regime. Even so, the party managed to sustain its non-Marxist orientation, at their 12th Convention in 1981, the Alliance put forward proposals to establish a Tribunal of State, a Constitutional Tribunal, an Ombudsman Office, and to restore the Senate. Furthermore, the convention suggested that May 3, the anniversary of the Constitution of May 3rd 1791, should become a national holiday, some Alliance members became engaged in the activities of the anti-Communist underground opposition. In 1989 representatives of the Alliance of Democrats participated actively in the Round Table negotiations, after 1990, most of the members of the SD joined other parties, such as the Freedom Union. The party continued to exist, but had only a support base. The Democratic Party possessed a large amount of properties, which made it possible to finance political campaigns after sale of these properties. The value of its assets is estimated at PLN65 to 250 million, after 2009 new politicians joined the party, such as centrist-conservative Paweł Piskorski. The party restored their representation in parliament, by taking over of the members of the Democratic Party – demokraci. pl group consisting of three members, after Paweł Piskorski rise to the leadership of the party many of its old members of party resigned from being members of SD. In the 2009 European Elections, the candidates obtained 0. 027% of votes because of registration problems. Since May 2009 the Alliance of Democrats has been a member of the European Democratic Party, SD supportined former Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrzej Olechowskis candidature in the 2010 presidential election. The Party was to announce its new programme at its XXVI Congress

32.
Hashomer Hatzair
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Hashomer Hatzair along with HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed of Israel are members of the International Falcon Movement – Socialist Education International. Hashomer Hatzair is the oldest Zionist youth movement still in existence, initially Marxist-Zionist, the movement was influenced by the ideas of Ber Borochov and Gustav Wyneken as well as Baden-Powell and the German Wandervogel movement. Hashomer Hatzair believed that the liberation of Jewish youth could be accomplished by aliyah to Palestine, after the war the movement spread to Jewish communities throughout the world as a scouting movement. Psychoanalysis was also an influence, partly through Siegfried Bernfeld, so was the philosopher Martin Buber, otto Fenichel also supported Hashomer Hatzairs efforts to integrate Marxism with psychoanalysis. Members of the movement settled in Mandatory Palestine as early as in 1919, in 1927, the four kibbutzim founded by Hashomer Hatzair banded together to form the Kibbutz Artzi federation. The movement also formed a party which shared the name Hashomer Hartzair. That is why, when a group of Zionist leaders met in New York in May 1942 in the Biltmore Hotel. The Socialist League was the only Zionist political party within the Yishuv to accept Arab members as equals, support Arab rights, by 1939, Hashomer Hatzair had 70,000 members worldwide. The movements membership base was in Eastern Europe, with the advent of World War II and the Holocaust, members of Hashomer Hatzair focused their attention on resistance against the Nazis. Mordechaj Anielewicz, the leader of Hashomer Hatzairs Warsaw branch, became head of the Jewish Fighting Organization, other members of the movement were involved in Jewish resistance and rescue in Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia. The leaders of Hashomer Hatzair in Romania were arrested and executed for anti-fascist activities, the head of Hashomer Hatzair in Łódź, Abraham Gancwajch, on the other hand, formed the Jewish Nazi collaboration network Group 13 in December 1940, active in the Warsaw Ghetto. He was also the leader of the infamous Gestapo-sponsored Jewish organisation Żagiew, after the war, the movement was involved in organizing illegal immigration of Jewish refugees to Palestine. Members were also involved in the Haganah military movement as well as in the leadership of the Palmach, today, Hashomer Hatzair continues as a youth movement based in Israel, and operates internationally. In Europe, North and Latin America, as well as in Australia, Hashomer Hatzair organizes activities, activities are still relatively ideological, but over time have been adapted to the needs of modern communities, vastly different from the context in which Hashomer Hatzair was created. Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Hungary, Bulgaria, Belarus, Ukraine, Australia, noam Chomsky sympathized with and worked with the group, although he was never a member. The movements even share an office in New York, today the movement operates in Tzavta Centro Comunitario, in the neighborhood of Almagro, City of Buenos Aires. It is one of 9 Zionist Youth Movements in the city and it has around 120 members, running regular Saturday activities and secular Kabalat Shabat service, besides two machanot per year. The movement in Australia is located in Melbourne and was established in 1953 as an away from Habonim Dror

33.
Betar
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The Betar Movement (ביתר, also spelled Beitar} is a Revisionist Zionist youth movement founded in 1923 in Riga, Latvia, by Vladimir Jabotinsky. Chapters sprang up across Europe, even during World War II, after the war and during the settlement of what became Israel, Betar was traditionally linked to the original Herut and then Likud political parties of Jewish pioneers. It was closely affiliated with the pre-Israel Revisionist Zionist splinter group Irgun Zevai Leumi and it was one of many right-wing movements and youth groups arising at that time that adopted special salutes and uniforms. Some of the most prominent politicians of Israel were Betarim in their youth, most notably prime ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Menachem Begin, today, Betar promotes Jewish leadership on university campuses as well as in local communities. Its history of empowering Jewish youth dates back to before the State of Israel, across Europe, Betar militias played major roles in independently resisting Nazi forces and their various assaults on Jewish communities. Betar was founded by Zeev Jabotinsky at a meeting of Jewish youth in Riga, Latvia, Jabotinsky spoke of the Arab attacks on the settlement of Tel Hai and other Jewish settlements in the Galilee. This is the philosophy of Revisionist Zionism. Jabotinsky proposed creating Betar to foster a new generation of Jews thoroughly indoctrinated in these nationalist ideals, in 1931, Jabotinsky was elected rosh Betar at the first world conference in Danzig. Joseph Trumpeldor, the leader of the Jewish settlers who were killed at Tel Hai in 1920, served as the primary role model of the Betar. A disabled man with one arm, he led his people in the futile defense of the settlement and died with the words, Never mind. The words of Shir Betar, written by Jabotinsky, include a line that quotes Trumpeldors last words to never mind, as the song expresses, Betar youth were to be as proud, generous, and fierce as Trumpeldor, and as ready to sacrifice themselves for Israel. The name Betar ביתר refers to both the last Jewish fort to fall in the Bar Kokhba revolt and to the altered Hebrew name of Brit Yosef Trumpeldor, although Trumpeldors name is properly spelt with tet, it was written with taf so as to produce the acronym. Despite resistance from both Zionist and non-Zionist Jews, Betar quickly gained a following in Poland, Palestine, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany. It was particularly successful in Poland, which had the largest Jewish population in Europe at the time, in 1934, Poland was home to 40,000 of Betars 70,000 members. Routine Betar activities in Warsaw included military drilling, instruction in Hebrew, militia groups organized by Betar Poland helped to defend against attacks by the anti-Semitic ONR. The interwar Polish government helped Betar with military training, some members admired the Polish nationalist camp and imitated some of its aspects. The group initially praised Mussolini for his anti-Communism and fascist principles, mussolinis invasion of Abyssinia, however, was seen as cowardly by Betar and they broke with him shortly after. In total, Betar was responsible for the entrance of over 40,000 Jews into Palestine under such restrictions, during World War II, Betar members, including former Polish Army officers, founded Żydowski Związek Wojskowy, which fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

34.
National Radical Camp (1934)
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The party was influenced by the ideas of Italian fascism, and tried to mix the ideas of totalitarianism with limited parliamentarism and pluralism. Some authors do not consider it to be a fascist political movement, while others suggest that its ideology had fascist elements, the party was created on the insistence of former members of the Camp of Great Poland, most notably Jan Mosdorf, Tadeusz Gluziński and Henryk Rossman. The organization proclaimed changes in the government based on the nationalist ideology and it supported class solidarity, nationalization of foreign and Jewish-owned companies and introduction of anti-semitic laws. At the same time it supported defense of property and a centralized state. The party favored aggressive eliminationist action against Polands minorities, the leading members of ONR-ABC included Henryk Rossman, Tadeusz Gluziński, Stanisław Piasecki, Jan Jodzewicz, Wojciech Zaleski, Tadeusz Todtleben and Jan Korolec. The leading members of ONR-Falanga included Bolesław Piasecki, Wojciech Wasiutyński, Wojciech Kwasieborski, the ONR was popular mostly among the students and other groups of urban youth. ONR openly encouraged anti-Jewish pogroms, and became the force in the organization of attacks against Jews. Because of its involvement in boycott of Jewish-owned stores, as well as attacks on left-wing worker demonstrations. They were not supportive of the mainstream Polish Secret State related to the Polish government in exile, during the Nazis occupation of Poland, many of the former ONR activists belonged to National Armed Forces resistance groups. Some former supporters, on the hand, actively collaborated with German Nazis, seeing Jews, not Germans. After World War II, the exile of many ONRs was made permanent by the communist regime. National Radical Camp Camp of National Unity National Radical Camp Falanga Ajnenkiel, the Political Right in Poland, 1918-39

35.
Polish Workers' Party
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The Polish Workers Party was a communist party in Poland from 1942 to 1948. It was founded as a reconstitution of the Communist Party of Poland, from the end of World War II the PPR ruled Poland, while the Soviet overall control and the Communist system were being established in the country. The Communist Party of Poland was an organization of the radical Left. The views adhered to and promulgated by its leaders led to the Partys difficult relationship with Joseph Stalin already in 1923–24, the Communist International condemned the KPP for its support of Józef Piłsudskis May Coup of 1926. From 1933, the KPP was increasingly treated with suspicion by the Comintern, the Partys structures were seen as compromised due to infiltration by agents of the Polish military intelligence. Some of the Party leaders, falsely accused of being such agents, were executed in the Soviet Union. The apogee of the Moscow-held prosecutions, aimed at eradicating the various deviations and ending usually in death sentences took place in 1937–38, the Comintern, in reality directed by Stalin, had the Party dissolved and liquidated in August 1938. The German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 changed the course of World War II, a Polish army was formed in the Soviet Union, but was soon taken out and into the Middle East by Władysław Anders. The Katyn massacre perpetrated by the Soviets on Polish POWs was revealed, Prime Minister Sikorski was killed in an airplane crash in July 1943. These and other factors, including disagreements about future borders, caused the Polish-Soviet relations to deteriorate, Polish language radio broadcasts began in August 1941, they called upon the Poles in Poland to unconditionally engage in anti-German resistance. Among the communist groups became active in Poland after Operation Barbarossa was the Union for Liberating Struggle. They had Stalins permission to create a new Polish communist party, however, it was decided not to include the word communist in the partys title in order to avoid the appearance that it was controlled by a foreign power. They were also aware of the unpopularity of communism among the Polish citizenry. With this in mind, the party took the name Polish Workers Party, the Party, intended in some sense as a continuation of the prewar KPP, was established in Warsaw on 5 January 1942, when some of the new arrivals met with local communist activists. The PPR, which presented itself as an anti-Nazi Polish patriotic front, distributed a manifesto printed in Moscow entitled To workers, peasants, to all Polish patriots. in which it called for an uncompromising struggle against the German occupant. A leftist, formally democratic program was proposed and the Party, operating mostly in the General Government, from 1943, an affiliated youth organization existed, called the Union for the Struggle of the Youth. The PPR operated under the Central Committee led by Secretary Marceli Nowotko, Nowotko was killed on November 28,1942. Mołojec took over as secretary, but he was suspected of arranging Nowotkos murder, in January 1943, Finder became secretary and the three-person Secretariat also included Władysław Gomułka and Franciszek Jóźwiak

36.
Service for Poland's Victory
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Służba Zwycięstwu Polski was the first Polish resistance movement in World War II. It was created by the order of general Juliusz Rómmel on 27 September 1939, when the siege of Warsaw, capital of Poland, the commander of SZP was General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski. In November 1939 SZP was renamed Union of Armed Struggle, związek Walki Zbrojnej Home Army Służba Zwycięstwu Polski

37.
Union of Armed Struggle
–
Związek Walki Zbrojnej was an underground army formed in Poland following its invasion in September 1939 by Germany and the Soviet Union that opened World War II. It existed from November 13,1939, until February 14,1942, ZWZ was created from an earlier organization, Service for Polands Victory. Formally, the ZWZ was directed from Paris, by General Kazimierz Sosnkowski, due to practical problems, however, Sosnkowski’s control of the organization was very limited. The instruction of General Sosnkowski, in which he ordered his subordinates to create regional branches of the ZWZ, was brought to Warsaw on December 4,1939. According to Sosnkowski, the ZWZ was supposed to be a military organization, without regard to political differences. Furthermore, the idea of an uprising at the moment of entry of regular Polish units was put forward by Sosnkowski. Sikorski urged Rowecki to closely cooperate with leaders of political parties, after the arrest of General Michal Tokarzewski-Karaszewicz, who was captured by the NKVD on the way from Warsaw to Lwow, the ZWZ in Eastern Poland was left without a leader. Following the Operation Barbarossa, whole territory of the Second Polish Republic found itself under German occupation. Union of Active Struggle Norman Davies, Gods Playground, A History of Poland, in Two Volumes, Volume II,1795 to the Present, New York, Columbia University Press,1982, ISBN 0-231-05353-3

38.
Gray Ranks
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Gray Ranks was a codename for the underground paramilitary Polish Scouting Association during World War II. Some of its members were among the Home Armys best-trained troops, though formally independent, the Gray Ranks worked closely with the Government Delegation for Poland and Home Army Headquarters. The Gray Ranks had their own headquarters known under the cryptonym Pasieka staffed by the Chief Scout of Gray Ranks plus three to five deputies in the rank of Harcmistrz, after the German Invasion of Poland in 1939, the Nazis recognized the ZHP as a threat. Polish Scouts and Guides were branded as criminals and banned, under the leadership of Florian Marciniak, the ZHP carried on as a clandestine organization. The wartime Scouts evolved into the paramilitary Szare Szeregi, reporting up through the Polish underground state, the codename Szare Szeregi was adopted in 1940. It was first used by underground scouting in Poznań, to create confusion, the leaflets had been signed SS — later expanded to Szare Szeregi, a name that came to be adopted by the entire organization. Older Scouts carried out sabotage, armed resistance, and assassinations, the Girl Guides formed auxiliary units working as nurses, liaisons and munition carriers. Younger Scouts were involved in so-called minor sabotage under the auspice of the Wawer organization, during Operation Tempest, and especially during the Warsaw Uprising, the Scouts participated in the fighting, and several Szare Szeregi units were some of the most effective in combat. The Gray Ranks also included the White Couriers, who between late fall 1939 and mid-1940 helped smuggle many persons out of Soviet-occupied southeastern Poland into Hungary, in 1940, the Soviet Union executed most of the Boy Scouts held at Ostashkov prison. In 1945 the ZHP restored its name and returned to public existence. However, the communist authorities of Poland pressured the organization to become a member of the Pioneer Movement, the only existing part of pre-war ZHP during the year of the Communist regime was the ZHP pgK. The Gray Ranks followed the principles of the Polish Scouting Association, service to the people and country. In addition to the Scouting moral code, the Gray Ranks also followed a basic three-step path of action, the basic unit was the troop, comprising some 20 boys or girls. Each troop was composed of squads, each zastęp comprising 7 persons. Several troops from an area formed a district, which in turn formed part of a region. As of 1 May 1944, the Gray Ranks numbered 8,359 members, initially only older scouts, aged 17 and up, were admitted. Soon, however, younger children were admitted, and in 1942 a new structure was adopted, based largely on the structure of the Polish Scouting Association. Troops organised for children between 12 and 14 years of age were code-named Zawisza, after Zawisza Czarny, a medieval Polish knight, the troops did not take part in active resistance

39.
National Security Corps
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Państwowy Korpus Bezpieczeństwa was a Polish underground police force organized by the Armia Krajowa and Government Delegates Office at Home under German occupation during World War II. It was trained as the core of the police forces during the assumed all-national uprising. The first commander of the Corps was Lt. Col. Marian Kozielewski and he was later replaced by Stanisław Tabisz. In October 1943 the PKB had 8400 officers, until early 1944 the number grew to almost 12000, the PKB was created by the Department of the Internal Affairs of the Delegates Office in 1940, mostly from members of the pre-war Polish police and volunteers. PKB carried out investigation and criminal intelligence duties as well as gathered reports of the Gestapo and Kripo in the General Government and it enforced the verdicts prepared by the Directorate of Civil Resistance and Directorate of Underground Resistance and passed by the Special Courts. A unit of PKB commanded by Henryk Iwański purportedly distinguished itself during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943. However, according to the work of a Polish-Israeli research team, workers Militia PPS-WRN Wojskowa Służba Ochrony Powstania Polish Police during World War II

40.
Union for Armed Struggle
–
Związek Walki Zbrojnej was an underground army formed in Poland following its invasion in September 1939 by Germany and the Soviet Union that opened World War II. It existed from November 13,1939, until February 14,1942, ZWZ was created from an earlier organization, Service for Polands Victory. Formally, the ZWZ was directed from Paris, by General Kazimierz Sosnkowski, due to practical problems, however, Sosnkowski’s control of the organization was very limited. The instruction of General Sosnkowski, in which he ordered his subordinates to create regional branches of the ZWZ, was brought to Warsaw on December 4,1939. According to Sosnkowski, the ZWZ was supposed to be a military organization, without regard to political differences. Furthermore, the idea of an uprising at the moment of entry of regular Polish units was put forward by Sosnkowski. Sikorski urged Rowecki to closely cooperate with leaders of political parties, after the arrest of General Michal Tokarzewski-Karaszewicz, who was captured by the NKVD on the way from Warsaw to Lwow, the ZWZ in Eastern Poland was left without a leader. Following the Operation Barbarossa, whole territory of the Second Polish Republic found itself under German occupation. Union of Active Struggle Norman Davies, Gods Playground, A History of Poland, in Two Volumes, Volume II,1795 to the Present, New York, Columbia University Press,1982, ISBN 0-231-05353-3

41.
National Military Organization
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Narodowa Organizacja Wojskowa was one of the Polish resistance movements in World War II. Created in October 1939, it did not merge with the Service for Polands Victory /Union of Armed Struggle, nevertheless, it recognized the Polish government in exile, which was located in London. The National Military Organization was politically related to the National Party, in 1942/1943 it split into two parts, one merged with the Home Army, while another formed the National Armed Forces. After the Warsaw Uprising, most of NOW members formed the National Military Union, on October 13,1939, a few days after the end of the joint German and Soviet Invasion of Poland, a conspirational meeting of leaders of the National Party took place in Warsaw. During the meeting, an organization called the National Army was created. Later on, it changed the name into Military Organization of the National Party, then it was called National Armed Units, the NOW was politically, financially and personally overseen by Military Department of the National Party. At the same time, it had a widespread autonomy concerning its structure, intelligence and its first planned commandant was General Marian Januszajtis-Zegota, but he was arrested by the NKVD in Lwów, on October 27,1939. Under the circumstances, the NOW was commanded by Colonel Aleksander Demidowicz-Demidecki, in December 1939, Demidecki left occupied Poland, and was replaced by Colonel Boleslaw Kozubowski. In the late 1940 and 1941, the Gestapo carried out mass arrests of members of the National Party in Lesser Poland, Pomerelia and Warsaw. After this, the party had to re-create its depleted structures, as a result, on August 23,1942 an agreement was signed, and in November 1942, the merger was completed. Several NOW members, headed by August Michalowski, disagreed with it, the organization split into two parts - one was united with the Home Army, while another continued independent activities. The new NOW was headed by Colonel Ignacy Oziewicz, and was divided into five districts, Radom, Kielce, Częstochowa, Podlasie, Lublin, in 1942, the new NOW merged with Military Organization Lizard Union, creating the National Armed Forces. In 1942, before the split, the NOW had some 80,000 members, mostly in Greater Poland, Lesser Poland and it had its own guerilla units, under such leaders, as Franciszek Przysiezniak, Jozef Czuchra, Leon Janio and Jozef Zadzierski. The organization, however, concentrated its efforts on intelligence, and capturing German agents, weapons and ammunition were collected for the future uprising, a system of communication was created, underground press was distributed. There were several actions, and in order to rescue Jews. Some 1500 NOW soldiers fought in the Warsaw Uprising. Until mid-1941, the NOW was divided into 14 districts, Warsaw - City, Warsaw - Land, Radom, Kielce, Lublin, Rzeszow, Białystok, Kraków, Częstochowa, Lwów, Podlasie, Łódź, Poznań Pomorze and Kujawy. Main publication of the National Party, with circulation of 20,000, Wielka Polska, Rzeczpospolita Polska Mloda Polska, Polak, Zolnierz Wielkiej Polski, Sprawa Narodu, Mysl Narodowa

42.
National Armed Forces
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Narodowe Siły Zbrojne was a Polish anti-Nazi and later anti-Soviet military organization which was part of the Polish resistance movement in World War II. The NSZ fought the Nazi Germany and Soviet forces, regarding them as occupiers, the NSZ was also engaged in fighting Soviet-allied Polish communist partisan forces, such as Gwardia Ludowa and Armia Ludowa. The NSZ was the third largest Polish resistance movement of World War II, after the Home Army, the number of its soldiers ranged from 70,000 to 75,000. The NSZ was created on September 20,1942, as a result of the merger of the Military Organization Lizard Union and part of the National Military Organization. At its maximum strength in 1943-44 the NSZ reached between 70,000 and 75,000 members, making it the third largest organization of the Polish resistance, NSZ units participated in the Warsaw Uprising. In March 1944 the NSZ split, with the moderate faction coming under the command of the AK. The other part of the organization known as the NSZ-ZJ. This branch of the NSZ conducted operations against Polish communist activists, partisans and secret police, the Soviet partisans, NKVD and SMERSH, the actions claimed hundreds of victims, including many Jews. The NSZ occupied the far right of the political spectrum, the General Directive Nr.3 of the National Armed Forces General Command, L. During the war, the NSZ fought the Polish communists including their military organizations such as the Gwardia Ludowa, after the war former NSZ members were persecuted by the newly installed communist government of the Polish Peoples Republic. Reportedly, communist partisans engaged in planting false evidence like documents and this Top Secret Directive signed by the ministrys head Stanisław Radkiewicz was issued to all the voivodeship and field UB offices. It is advised that special-purpose units created during the summer of last year be used for this purpose and this action is to be accompanied by a press campaign directed against the reactionary gangs who will be blamed for these actions. This is simply demanded by the Polish national interest, polish-American historian Marek Jan Chodakiewicz noted that the Jews accused of robberies were executed by all sides of the internal partisan conflict. According to Marek Edelman the lawlessness had little to do with antisemitism and it resumed operations against the Nazis on May 5,1945 in Bohemia, where the brigade liberated prisoners from a concentration camp in Holýšov, including 280 Jewish women prisoners slated for death. In 1947, Maria Bernstein, a Jew who survived Nazi occupation wrote on behalf of Jerzy Zakulski and she testified that Zakulski saved the lives of her and her child by providing them with shelter after they had escaped from the ghetto. Zakulski was executed on July 31,1947, nevertheless, members of the NSZ, as other so-called cursed soldiers and their families, were persecuted during the Stalinist period after the war. In Autumn 1946, a group of 100-200 soldiers of a NSZ unit under the command of Henryk Flame, nom de guerre Bartek, were lured into a trap and massacred by communist military and police forces. In 1992, the National Armed Forces underground soldiers were rehabilitated by the Polish state and given the status of war veterans

43.
Camp of Fighting Poland
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Obóz Polski Walczącej was a minor part of the Polish resistance movement in World War II. It operated from 1942 to 1944, centered in Warsaw and its members had mostly belonged to the former political party, Obóz Zjednoczenia Narodowego, part of the Sanacja movement. Organizers of this movement included marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły and Julian Piasecki and it became militarily subordinate to the Armia Krajowa from 1943 and eventually merged with Konwent Organizacji Niepodległościowych into Zjednoczenie Organizacji Niepodległościowych in 1944. OBÓZ POLSKI WALCZĄCEJ on Encyklopedia Interia Biography of Edward Rydz-Śmigły J. C, zarys struktury i działalności, „Czasy Nowożytne”, t

44.
Pomeranian Griffin
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The Pomeranian Griffin secret military organization was a Polish anti-Nazi resistance group active in Pomerania and East Prussia during World War II. A major Polish resistance organization in the Pomerania region, at its height in 1943 it might have had as many as 20,000 members, although only about 500 were active partisans in the forests. The name of the referred to the traditional coat of arms of Pomerania. After the German invasion of Poland, Polish Pomeranian territories were annexed into the German, as elsewhere in Poland, resistance organizations soon appeared. According to Polish historian Tomasz Strzembosz, the groundwork for the organization might have laid down before the war by Colonel Ludwik Muzyczki. In addition to operations carried out by its forest partisan units. In 1943 internal ideological conflicts escalated during negotiations over the subordination of the organization to the main Polish anti-Nazi resistance movement, Polish resistance structures in Pomerania had suffered more than their fair share of arrests, and Griffin leaders were wary of opening themselves up to a larger structure. Furthermore, whereas the Home Army and the government in exile were run by a coalition of parties, Griffin. A portion of the Griffin split to join the Miecz i Plug nationalist movement, either way, as a result, many of the conspirators of the Griffin were compromised, arrested by the Nazis, and sent to Nazi concentration camps. However, once Pomerania came under Soviet control, members of the group were persecuted and arrested by the Soviet authorities because of the organizations pro-Catholic and nationalistic character, some historians argue that Griffin soldiers were treated much more harshly than even the Armia Krajowa and the cursed soldiers members. Two of the Pomeranian Griffins most notable members were Lieutenant Józef Dambek, Griffins leader, and Colonel-Chaplain Józef Wrycza, after Lieutenant Dambek was killed by the Germans in 1944, he was succeeded by Lieutenant Augustyn Westphal

Operation Tempest
–
Operation Tempest was a series of anti-Nazi uprisings conducted during World War II by the Polish Home Army, the dominant force in the Polish resistance. Operation Tempest was aimed at seizing control of cities and areas occupied by the Germans while they were preparing their defenses against the advancing Soviet Red Army, Polish underground civil

1.
History of Poland 1939–1945

2.
Captain " Mruk " of the Radom - Kielce area Home Army, with a Soviet reconnaissance patrol.

4.
Polish Home Army 's 26th Infantry Regiment en route from the Kielce - Radom area to Warsaw in an attempt to join the Warsaw Uprising

World War II
–
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directl

1.
Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the Battle of Wanjialing, Australian 25-pounder guns during the First Battle of El Alamein, German Stuka dive bombers on the Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the Lingayen Gulf, Wilhelm Keitel signing the German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad

2.
The League of Nations assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland, 1930

3.
Adolf Hitler at a German National Socialist political rally in Weimar, October 1930

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Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the Second Italo-Abyssinian War

Armia Krajowa
–
The Home Army was the dominant Polish resistance movement in Poland occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej, over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces. Its allegiance was to the Polish Government-in-Exile, and it constituted the

1.
History of Poland 1939–1945

2.
Kotwica ("Anchor") device of the Polish Underground State and Home Army, on a Polish flag

Nazi Germany
–
Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name o

1.
Hitler became Germany's head of state, with the title of Führer und Reichskanzler, in 1934.

Operation Ostra Brama
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Operation Ostra Brama was an armed conflict during World War II between the Polish Home Army and the Nazi German occupiers of Vilnius. It began on 7 July 1944, as part of a Polish national uprising, Operation Tempest, though the Germans were defeated, the following day the Soviet Red Army entered the city and the Soviet NKVD proceeded to intern Pol

1.
History of Poland 1939–1945

2.
Dislocation of Polish and German units at the start of the fighting

3.
Soviet and Home Army soldiers on patrol together in the streets of Wilno on July 12th, 1944. While the Home Army and the Red Army cooperated in liberating the city from the Germans (July 7th - July 15th), after this was accomplished, on July 16th, the Soviets arrested and interned the Polish officers.

Warsaw Uprising
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The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. The uprising was timed to coincide with the Soviet Unions Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces. However, the Soviet advance stopped short, enabling the Germans to regro

1.
Polish Home Army positions, outlined in red, on day 4 (4 August 1944)

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Commander Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski of the Polish Home Army.

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Weapons used by the resistance, including the Błyskawica submachine gun —one of very few weapons designed and mass-produced covertly in occupied Europe.

4.
Kubuś an armoured car made by the Home Army during the Uprising. A single unit was built by the "Krybar" Regiment on the chassis of a Chevrolet 157 van.

Polish language
–
Polish is a West Slavic language spoken primarily in Poland and is the native language of the Poles. It belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of the West Slavic languages, Polish is the official language of Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries. It is one of the languages of the European Union. Its writ

Home Army
–
The Home Army was the dominant Polish resistance movement in Poland occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej, over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces. Its allegiance was to the Polish Government-in-Exile, and it constituted the

1.
History of Poland 1939–1945

2.
Kotwica ("Anchor") device of the Polish Underground State and Home Army, on a Polish flag

Polish resistance movement in World War II
–
The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European anti-fascist resistance movement. It was a part of the Polish Underground State, the largest of all Polish resistance organizations was the Armia Krajowa, loyal to the Polish government in exile in London. The AK was formed in 1942 from the Union for Armed Combat a

Lviv
–
Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine and the seventh largest city in the country overall, is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine. Named in honor of the Leo, the eldest son of Rus King Daniel of Galicia. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia from 1272 to 1349, from 1434, it was the regional capital of the Ruthenian Voivo

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View of the Market Square, and Theatre of Opera and Ballet.

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Lviv satellite view (Landsat 5, 14 November 2010)

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The castle of Lwów in 1681, made by Georg Matthäus Vischer (1628–1696)

Eastern Front (World War II)
–
The battles on the Eastern Front constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres. The Eastern Front, as the site of nearly all extermination camps, death marches

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German infantry in June 1943

2.
Clockwise from top left: Soviet Il-2 ground attack aircraft in Berlin sky; German Tiger I tanks during the Battle of Kursk; German Stuka dive bombers on the Eastern Front, winter 1943–1944; Killings of Jews by German Einsatzgruppen in Ukraine; Wilhelm Keitel signing the German Instrument of Surrender; Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad

3.
Map of South Western Front (Ukrainian) at 22 June 1941

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The corpses of victims of Stalin's NKVD murdered in the last few days of June 1941, just after the outbreak of war

Gulag
–
The Gulag was the government agency that administered and controlled the Soviet forced-labor camp system during Joseph Stalins rule from the 1930s up until the 1950s. The term is commonly used to reference any forced-labor camp in the Soviet Union. The camps housed a range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners. Large numbers were

1.
The fence at the old Gulag in Perm-36, founded in 1943

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Road construction by inmates of the Dalstroy (part of the ' Road of Bones ' from Magadan to Yakutsk).

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Transpolar Railway was a project of the Gulag system that took place from 1947 to 1953.

Soviet Union
–
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started t

1.
Vladimir Lenin addressing a crowd with Trotsky, 1920

2.
Flag

3.
Stalin and Nikolai Yezhov, head of the NKVD. After Yezhov was executed, he was edited out of the image.

Red Army
–
The Workers and Peasants Red Army was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and after 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution, the Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations of their adversaries during the Russ

Volhynia
–
Volhynia or Volyn is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe straddling Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. The borders of the region are not clearly defined, while the territory that still carries the name is Volyn Oblast, Volhynia has changed hands numerous times throughout history and been divided among competing powers. Since the fall of the

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Lubart's Castle (Lutsk) was the seat of the medieval princes of Volhynia.

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Mezhyrich Abbey in Ostroh was endowed by the Ostrogski princes in the 15th century.

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Olyka Castle

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Pochayiv Lavra, the spiritual heart of the Orthodox in Volhynia.

Tarnopol Voivodeship
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Tarnopol Voivodeship was an administrative region of interwar Poland with an area of 16,500 km² and provincial capital in Tarnopol. The voivodeship was divided into 17 districts, the Polish population was forcibly resettled after the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Tarnopol Voivodeship was incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. Sin

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Tarnopol Voivodeship until September 17, 1939

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Tarnopol Voivodeship (red) on the map of Second Polish Republic

Bug River
–
The Bug River is a major European river which flows through three countries with a total length of 830 kilometres. The name Bug probably came from the old Germanic word baug-s which meant something winding, genual, slavs adopted the word Baug from the Goths who previously lived in large numbers near the river. Traditionally the Bug River was also c

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Bug River in the vicinity of Wyszków, Poland

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Allegory of the Bug River, a statue on the terrace of the Palace on the Island in Łazienki Palace, Warsaw

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Bug River in the vicinity of Włodawa

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Bug River in the vicinity of Nur

Polish Secret State
–
The first elements of the Underground State were established in the final days of the German invasion of Poland that began in September 1939. The Underground State encompassed not only military resistance, one of the largest in the world, although the Underground State enjoyed broad support throughout much of the war, it was not supported or recogn

1.
History of Poland 1939–1945

2.
Flag

3.
Władysław Sikorski, Polish commander in chief and prime minister during World War II

4.
Stefan Korboński, the last Delegate.

14th Regiment of Jazlowiec Uhlans
–
14th Regiment of Jazlowiec Uhlans was a cavalry unit of the Polish Army in the Second Polish Republic, also a unit of Polish Armed Forces in the West and the Home Army. Stationed in the period in the garrison of Lwów, it was named after the village of Jazlowiec. The regiment dates back to February 1918, when a Polish squadron was formed in the town

1.
Regimental flag, kept at the Sikorski Institute in London

Ukrainian Auxiliary Police
–
The Ukrainian Auxiliary Police was created by Heinrich Himmler in mid-August 1941 and put under the control of German Ordnungspolizei in General Government territory. The actual Reichskommissariat Ukraine was formed officially on 20 August 1941, the uniformed force was composed in large part of the former members of the Ukrainian Peoples Militia cr

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Ukrainische Hilfspolizei Ukrainian Auxiliary Police

2.
Ukrainian Schutzmannschaft battalion photographed in 1942

Wehrmacht
–
The Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1946. It consisted of the Heer, the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler’s most overt and audacious moves was to establish the Wehrmacht, a modern armed forces fully capable of offensive use. In December 1941, Hitler desig

1.
Werner Goldberg, who was blond and blue-eyed, was used in Wehrmacht recruitment posters as the "ideal German soldier". He was later dismissed after it became known that he was a half Jew.

2.
The straight-armed Balkenkreuz, a stylized version of the Iron Cross, the emblem of the Wehrmacht

3.
Inspection of German conscripts

4.
A Volga Tatar Wehrmacht unit

Reconnaissance
–
In military operations, reconnaissance is the exploration outside an area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about natural features and enemy presence. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops, ships or submarines, manned/unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, satellites, espionage normally is not reconnaissance, because reco

2.
A Scimitar as used by armoured reconnaissance regiments of the British Army.

3.
A two-man JGSDF team mans Kawasaki KLX250 dirt bikes in the reconnaissance role during a public demonstration.

4.
U.S. Seabee Engineer Reconnaissance Team on a mission to determine if a bridge can be used to support troop and convoy movements

Polish Underground State
–
The first elements of the Underground State were established in the final days of the German invasion of Poland that began in September 1939. The Underground State encompassed not only military resistance, one of the largest in the world, although the Underground State enjoyed broad support throughout much of the war, it was not supported or recogn

1.
History of Poland 1939–1945

2.
Flag

3.
Władysław Sikorski, Polish commander in chief and prime minister during World War II

4.
Stefan Korboński, the last Delegate.

Polish government-in-exile
–
Only after the end of Communist rule in Poland did the government-in-exile formally pass on its responsibilities to the new government of the Third Polish Republic in December 1990. The government-in-exile was based in France during 1939 and 1940, first in Paris, from 1940, following the Fall of France, the government moved to London, and remained

1.
History of Poland 1939–1945

2.
Flag

3.
Władysław Sikorski, first Prime Minister of the Polish Government in Exile.

Government Delegate's Office at Home
–
The Government Delegation for Poland was an agency of the Polish Government in Exile during World War II. It was the highest authority of the Polish Secret State in occupied Poland and it was headed by the Government Delegate for Poland, a de facto deputy Polish Prime Minister. The Government Delegation for Poland was intended as the first provisio

1.
History of Poland 1939–1945

Council of National Unity
–
Rada Jedności Narodowej was the quasi-parliament of the Polish Underground State during World War II. It was created by the Government Delegate on 9 January 1944, originally the political arm of the Polish Secret State was Political Consultative Committee, a council composed of 4 main political parties. It became the body of both the Delegates Offi

1.
History of Poland 1939–1945

Directorate of Civil Resistance
–
Directorate of Civil Resistance was one of the branches of the Polish Government Delegate’s Office during World War II. Its main tasks were to maintain the morale of the Polish society, encourage passive resistance, report German atrocities and cruelties to the Polish Government in Exile, in addition, it was responsible for the law and justice in o

1.
History of Poland 1939–1945

Polish Socialist Party
–
The Polish Socialist Party was a left-wing Polish political party, it was one of the most important parties in Poland from its inception in 1892 until its dissolution in 1948. A party with the name was established in 1987 but has remained at the margins of Polish politics. Józef Piłsudski, founder of the resurrected Polish state, was a member and l

1.
Polish Socialist Party Polska Partia Socjalistyczna

National Party (Poland)
–
The National Party was a Polish nationalist political party formed on 7 October 1928 after the transformation of Popular National Union. It gathered together most of the forces of Polands National Democracy right-wing political camp. SN was one of the opponents of the Sanacja regime. Shortly before World War II the party had 200,000 members, in the

1.
Members of the original Stronnictwo Narodowe at the funeral of Roman Dmowski, Warsaw 1939.

Camp of National Unity
–
The attempt failed as another Sanacja politician, President Ignacy Mościcki, likewise had a large following, nevertheless, substantial numbers of people did throw their lot in with Rydz-Śmigły. On February 21,1937, diplomat and Colonel Adam Koc formally announced the formation of OZN and its stated aims were to improve Polands national defense and

1.
Declaration of OZN political program in Gazeta Polska on 22 February 1937

Democratic Party (Poland)
–
The Alliance of Democrats is a Polish centrist party. The party faced a revival in 2009, when it was joined by liberal politician Paweł Piskorski, the Alliance of Democrats has its origins in the Democratic Clubs, which were opposed to authoritarian and nationalistic tendencies in the Second Republic of Poland between the two World Wars. The nation

1.
Headquarters of the SD, in Warsaw

2.
Poland

Hashomer Hatzair
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Hashomer Hatzair along with HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed of Israel are members of the International Falcon Movement – Socialist Education International. Hashomer Hatzair is the oldest Zionist youth movement still in existence, initially Marxist-Zionist, the movement was influenced by the ideas of Ber Borochov and Gustav Wyneken as well as Baden-Powell a

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Hashomer Hatzair´s May 1st parade in Haifa in the 50´s

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The Semel Tnua, the official logo of Hashomer Hatzair. The inscription, in Hebrew, reads "Chazak Ve'ematz", best translated as "Be Strong and Brave". It is taken from the Book of Joshua 1:6.

Betar
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The Betar Movement (ביתר, also spelled Beitar} is a Revisionist Zionist youth movement founded in 1923 in Riga, Latvia, by Vladimir Jabotinsky. Chapters sprang up across Europe, even during World War II, after the war and during the settlement of what became Israel, Betar was traditionally linked to the original Herut and then Likud political parti

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Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder and first leader of Betar, shown here in Betar uniform.

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Vladimir Jabotinsky in the company of Betar commanders, Palestine

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Betar formation in Berlin

National Radical Camp (1934)
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The party was influenced by the ideas of Italian fascism, and tried to mix the ideas of totalitarianism with limited parliamentarism and pluralism. Some authors do not consider it to be a fascist political movement, while others suggest that its ideology had fascist elements, the party was created on the insistence of former members of the Camp of

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National Radical Camp

Polish Workers' Party
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The Polish Workers Party was a communist party in Poland from 1942 to 1948. It was founded as a reconstitution of the Communist Party of Poland, from the end of World War II the PPR ruled Poland, while the Soviet overall control and the Communist system were being established in the country. The Communist Party of Poland was an organization of the

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Polish Workers' Party Polska Partia Robotnicza

Service for Poland's Victory
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Służba Zwycięstwu Polski was the first Polish resistance movement in World War II. It was created by the order of general Juliusz Rómmel on 27 September 1939, when the siege of Warsaw, capital of Poland, the commander of SZP was General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski. In November 1939 SZP was renamed Union of Armed Struggle, związek Walki Zbrojnej

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History of Poland 1939–1945

Union of Armed Struggle
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Związek Walki Zbrojnej was an underground army formed in Poland following its invasion in September 1939 by Germany and the Soviet Union that opened World War II. It existed from November 13,1939, until February 14,1942, ZWZ was created from an earlier organization, Service for Polands Victory. Formally, the ZWZ was directed from Paris, by General

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History of Poland 1939–1945

Gray Ranks
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Gray Ranks was a codename for the underground paramilitary Polish Scouting Association during World War II. Some of its members were among the Home Armys best-trained troops, though formally independent, the Gray Ranks worked closely with the Government Delegation for Poland and Home Army Headquarters. The Gray Ranks had their own headquarters know

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Assault-group soldiers during Warsaw Uprising

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History of Poland 1939–1945

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The Kotwica sign, painted by Gray Ranks on pedestal of the 1932 Warsaw Aviators' Monument

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Jan Kiliński statue

National Security Corps
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Państwowy Korpus Bezpieczeństwa was a Polish underground police force organized by the Armia Krajowa and Government Delegates Office at Home under German occupation during World War II. It was trained as the core of the police forces during the assumed all-national uprising. The first commander of the Corps was Lt. Col. Marian Kozielewski and he wa

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History of Poland 1939–1945

Union for Armed Struggle
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Związek Walki Zbrojnej was an underground army formed in Poland following its invasion in September 1939 by Germany and the Soviet Union that opened World War II. It existed from November 13,1939, until February 14,1942, ZWZ was created from an earlier organization, Service for Polands Victory. Formally, the ZWZ was directed from Paris, by General

1.
History of Poland 1939–1945

National Military Organization
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Narodowa Organizacja Wojskowa was one of the Polish resistance movements in World War II. Created in October 1939, it did not merge with the Service for Polands Victory /Union of Armed Struggle, nevertheless, it recognized the Polish government in exile, which was located in London. The National Military Organization was politically related to the

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History of Poland 1939–1945

National Armed Forces
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Narodowe Siły Zbrojne was a Polish anti-Nazi and later anti-Soviet military organization which was part of the Polish resistance movement in World War II. The NSZ fought the Nazi Germany and Soviet forces, regarding them as occupiers, the NSZ was also engaged in fighting Soviet-allied Polish communist partisan forces, such as Gwardia Ludowa and Arm

Camp of Fighting Poland
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Obóz Polski Walczącej was a minor part of the Polish resistance movement in World War II. It operated from 1942 to 1944, centered in Warsaw and its members had mostly belonged to the former political party, Obóz Zjednoczenia Narodowego, part of the Sanacja movement. Organizers of this movement included marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły and Julian Piasecki

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History of Poland 1939–1945

Pomeranian Griffin
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The Pomeranian Griffin secret military organization was a Polish anti-Nazi resistance group active in Pomerania and East Prussia during World War II. A major Polish resistance organization in the Pomerania region, at its height in 1943 it might have had as many as 20,000 members, although only about 500 were active partisans in the forests. The nam

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Portrait of a Young Man, by Raphael, ca. 1514. Possibly a self-portrait, and if so, the most valuable single piece of art looted by the Nazis in Poland. Formerly in the collection of the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, its whereabouts remain unknown.

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Photo of earliest, 1829 portrait of Chopin, by Mieroszewski. Destroyed in Warsaw, September 1939.

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Important early stages in the history of the Polish state and church took place on the island of Ostrów Tumski. Remnants of the original palatium –chapel complex of Poland's first Christian ruling couple have been found beneath the church in the foreground. The Poznań Cathedral is located on the right.

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Roma, Gallia, Germania and Sclavinia (Slavic province of Europe) bring offerings to Emperor Otto III, approaching him in that order. However, they appear to be given equal rank (size), which is a reflection of imperial policies at that time.

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An image on the Gniezno Doors at the entrance to Gniezno Cathedral depicts Bolesław buying Adalbert's body back from the Prussians